After surprising the world when she came out publicly back in 2021, JoJo Siwa is now opening up about the fallout from her announcement and how it impacted her career.
On the first episode of her new iHeartMedia podcast Jojo Siwa Now, the former Dance Moms star got candid about her experience coming out as queer. “I was on the phone with my girlfriend at the time, and I said ‘I think I wanna come out to the world,'” Siwa said, according to Billboard. “I posted this picture and threw it on my Instagram Story, and that’s how I confirmed it … I didn’t think twice about it.”
The now 20-year-old child star came out when she was only 17 by posting a photo of herself on her Instagram Story wearing a t-shirt that read, “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever.” Siwa said she got “a lot of positivity and love” from fans, but also faced a lot of blowback from the revelation. “There was also a lot of negativity, and I did lose a lot,” she explained. “I didn’t care, and I still don’t care about the things I lost and the people that I lost and if I lost a chunk of fans, because it’s who I am.”
Siwa said she built her brand off of “being genuine” and fans who aren’t on board with her sexual identity can take a hike. “If you didn’t like me because [one day] I was straight, and [the next day] I was gay, then you’re not meant to like me anyways,” she said. “I just try to really be genuine, really be who I am.”
Since coming out Siwa has been romantically linked to Kylie Prew, Katie Mills, and Avery Cyrus and took home second place on Dancing With the Stars, where she was part of the show’s first same-sex dance team.
Siwa is currently competing alongside stars like Jack Osborne, Tom Sandoval, Tara Reid and Blac Chyna on the second season of the reality series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
