If you come for JoJo Siwa’s bows or her sexuality, prepare to be casually roasted over an open flame.
As a YouTube star, former Dance Moms contestant, and one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People of 2020, 17-year-old JoJo Siwa has very little time to deal with haters. So little time, in fact, that she’s spent a good part of her career expediting this message to the public, via YouTube hits like “Hold the Drama” and her 2017 memoir, Jojo’s Guide to the Sweet Life: #peaceouthaterz.
However, when Siwa officially came out as part of the LGBTQ+ community over the weekend, things ramped up quickly. After a series of videos that caused her legions of fans to freak out because of hints she might be queer, the singer, dancer, and entrepreneur posted a 14-minute long video to Instagram on Sunday explaining that she is, in fact, part of the rainbow mafia.
Casually flexing her Time 100 sweatshirt and wearing one of her signature rainbow hair bows, Siwa confirmed viewers’ speculation about her sexuality, saying that there is “so much love in the world” and that she’s the “happiest [she’s] ever been.”
Although Siwa didn’t attach a label to herself in the video, she explained that she is still working on finding the word that’s right for her. “I think in life,” Siwa says, “you know when you’ve met your person.” What’s that sound? Oh nothing, just my heart melting into the floor.
In the post, Siwa appears happy, excited, and unshaken by the whirlwind of events that led up to her official coming-out. Only the day before, just hours after posting an image of herself to Twitter wearing a shirt that said “best gay cousin ever,” Siwa was “swatted” by neighbors, causing her and her best friend and videographer, Nate Javier to leave Siwa’s home after a SWAT team showed up.
The next day’s official coming out video garnered supportive comments and hearts from celebs like Trixie Mattel, Kerry Washington, and Tesla truther Jamie Lynn Spears. It being a coming-out video, of course, it wasn’t all positivity and sparkles. A certain concerned (read: homophobic) parent instantly tried it with Siwa, posting, “My daughter will never watch you again.”
To which Queen Siwa replied, “Ok!”
It was the exclamation point that snatched a thousand wigs, and we shan’t be forgetting it soon. It’s also appropriate that Siwa’s first official act as part of the queer community is an act of cheerful resistance to bigotry. If this is how strong Siwa comes out of the gate, we can expect some Elektra Abundance-level Twitter draggings from her in the near future.
While there were a handful of similarly pressed comments from homophobes, the overwhelming response to the video was as heartwarming as ever. One parent even posted an emotional video to TikTok explaining to their daughter that her favorite singer “likes girls.” The daughter’s response?
“She’s like me.”
That’s how we know we’ve won.
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.’s weekly newsletter here.
