When we hear the name Jojo Siwa, we all picture the same things: glitter, rainbows, side ponytails, happiness, and most importantly, bows! If you do not already know, Jojo Siwa is a performer. Her road to stardom began when she joined the ultra-popular reality show, filled with drama and gossip, called “Dance Moms”. She made her first appearance in the fourth season and left toward the end of season six to begin a new chapter in her life. Since then, Jojo has released countless songs. Her most popular likely being “Boomerang”, “D.R.E.A.M”, and “Kid in a Candy Store”. She has gained a following of young people all over the world. On TikTok she currently has 33.2 million followers. She also has a Youtube channel which is very popular among her fans. Not to mention, she has released endless amounts of merchandise. From clothes to toys, and even bows, Jojo Siwa seems to have done it all. 

Although to many at first glance, Jojo may seem childish, when you truly consider everything that she has achieved at such a young age, you begin to appreciate the responsibility and maturity that she is required to have. With such a large and generally young audience, I think we can imagine the pressure that Jojo is under. Some of her songs and products can come off as childish, but the audience that she has directed her work towards is young kids, so can we really even judge her for this? It isn’t like we are all living in multi-million dollar houses with rooms dedicated to our own merchandise.

The significance of all of this relates back to a TikTok video that Jojo posted on January 20, 2021. I encourage you to find and watch the video yourself, but she simply lip-synced to Lady Gaga’s song “Born this Way”. If you haven’t figured it out already, Jojo Siwa was coming out. After posting this video, Jojo was overwhelmed with love and support. She then posted a photo to Twitter captioned, “My cousin got me a new shirt” (see photo on the right). This was an extremely monumental moment and a huge success for the LGBTQ+ community. Not to mention, Jojo risked quite a lot when she posted that TikTok. Considering the majority of her fans are young kids, Jojo’s career was essentially in the hands of parents. She could have lost many followers, but in an interview with Jimmy Fallon, she says, “If I lost everything that I’ve created because of being myself and because of loving who I want to love, I don’t want it.” When Jojo came out, the world was changed slightly. Her entire audience of young children now has someone that they can look up to who happens to be LGBTQ. Jojo has enabled her entire audience to see that loving who you want to love is not a crime and is nothing to be ashamed of. 

Shortly after coming out, Jojo announced that she did, in fact, have a girlfriend named Kylie. Since this announcement, Jojo has said that she has been with Kylie since January 8th of 2021. Their one month anniversary was on February 8th and Jojo made sure to post about how happy she was now that Kylie was in her life. She writes on an Instagram post, “She seriously is the most loving, supportive, happiest, protective, and just the most beautiful perfect person in the world. And I get to call her mine!” Then, as Valentine’s day approached, Jojo posted about Kylie once again. 

It is clear that Jojo Siwa is a true role model for young people everywhere. She has accomplished so much at such a young age and aspires to always be herself. Her fun and upbeat personality definitely does not take away from the responsibility and maturity that she has. Jojo’s coming out video was one that will be remembered, and it has brought to the surface all of the love and support that the world has to give. And with all of this being said, I will leave you with a statement that Jojo made after coming out: “Even if there’s a million people that don’t accept it, there’s 100 million that do.”