At the beginning of this year, JoJo Siwa confirmed to her followers that she was a part of the LGBTQ community. For the most part, she was flooded with support and love for her announcement. Shortly after, she told the world she did, in fact, have a girlfriend. At the time, JoJo did not name her girlfriend but could not stop gushing about how much she meant to JoJo. Since then, we have learned her name is Kylie Prew and has been featured on JoJo’s social media. They are absolutely darling together. JoJo is on the cover of People this week. In her interview, she discussed her decision to come out and the support she received both before and after her announcement. She also addressed her labeling, or rather her lack of labeling. JoJo has not identified specifically as lesbian or bisexual or anything else because she simply doesn’t know yet. She knows she’s in love with Kylie and therefore believes she’s probably more in line with being pansexual because “my human is my human.”
Born just before the advent of Facebook, JoJo doesn’t know a world without emojis. She sees her phone as more solution than problem: “My phone keeps me connected to the world!”
It’s also became a gateway to community and support. In January, Siwa came out as LGBTQ, over a series of posts on TikTok and Instagram. When she lipsynched Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” following a day with TikTok collective Pride House LA, fans wondered if she was revealing something about her sexuality. And with a very direct t-shirt — BEST GAY COUSIN EVER — she confirmed it.
Siwa also declared her love for girlfriend Kylie Prew, 18. “She never cares what the internet said about us,” she says. “It’s nice to have somebody in my life like that.”
Siwa says the announcement was the last thing she hadn’t shared wtih the world. And was inspired by her love for Prew, which began as friendship and turned romantic in late 2020. At first, Jojo didn’t want to put a “label” on her sexuality.
“I still don’t know what I am. It’s like, I want to figure it out. And I have this joke. Her name is Kylie. And so I say that I’m Ky-sexual,” she says. “But like, I don’t know, bisexual, pansexual, queer, lesbian, gay, straight. I always just say gay because it just kind of covers it or queer because I think the keyword is cool.”
“I like queer,” she adds. “Technically I would say that I am pansexual because that’s how I have always been my whole life is just like, my human is my human.”
“I never wanted [my coming out] to be a big deal,” she adds. But it was: Never before has someone with such a young fan base identified publicly as LGBTQ.
“I’ve known since I was little,” Siwa says. (“I did too,” her mom Jessalynn adds. “A mother knows.”) They both also knew it was a risk to tell the world. “I have a lot that could have gone away because of my love life,” Siwa says.
Ever connected to her fans, she Googled herself. Then she read the thousands of comments. “I never should have done that. I was thinking that all the comments were going to be nice and supportive, and they weren’t,” she says. “A lot of them were, ‘I’m never buying your merch again. My daughter’s never watching you again.’ I couldn’t sleep for three days.”
I’ve mentioned before that I think labeling has become too much of a priority with people. A person should be allowed all the time they need to determine how they see themselves. I know a few LGBTQ folks who, like JoJo, prefer the gay or queer term to any specific definition for themselves. I didn’t make the connection before about the age of JoJo fanbase and how significant it would be to have their idol identify as gay. She’s such a wonderful role model anyway and now she represents something to almost everyone. It broke my heart to read that she got hate after her announcement. I knew she would, but I wanted to believe it wouldn’t reach her. I’m glad she pushed through. She deserves to feel the power of this moment. She did a good thing for both herself and so many of her fans.
But it took courage and I know that courage came from her family, friends and fans. And, of course Kylie, who sounds like she deserves every word of JoJo signature ebullience. I think most people can understand having their human, even if it’s a platonic relationship.
I’m not sure all parents “know,” though. I mean, that’s great if they do, but I didn’t. I only knew my kids’ preferences after they told me. Their sexuality wasn’t a big concern for either me or my husband so when my son started talking about girls he liked, we figured out he was heterosexual. When my daughter started talking about the girls she liked, we figured out she was LGBTQ. She hasn’t labeled herself so technically, I still don’t actually “know.”
Photo credit: People and Instagram
My human is my human is a perfect way of stating things. No need to define things other than that.
They look so happy together! I’m so happy for her and all the fans this helps to be themselves.
Good for her but I think it’s time to lose the big bow in her hair.
Eh she’s 17 and it’s how she came to fame.
Just here to comment on labels. Labels have become such a big part of the Queer community and at 37 I can honestly say I still haven’t found a label I’m comfortable with other than the all incompassing ‘queer’, despite having come out as gay at 19. Let people be who they are and love or bang who they want without confining them to a box. Because should they ever step out of that box, it suddenly becomes everyone else’s business
^ this. I can only define as not-straight, even though I tend to have relationships right now with the opposite sex. I have no idea what else fits and frankly, not-straight is good enough for me right now.
Question: has the word “person” fallen out of favor? Human feels like someone saying “female” or “male” to me, like it’s technical. Is it because I am an elder millennial?
Also, she is absolutely the best!
So happy for JoJo and seeing healthy young loving relationships makes my heart sing.
I only know of her through this site, but it broke my heart to hear that people felt it necessary to attack her for coming out. She is a teenage girl, FFS! People do not have to buy her stuff or follow her online if they do not want to do so, but there is no reason to attack her. And it made me very sad to think of all the closeted LGBTQI kids who saw those hateful words online and might very well have thought, “If someone as talented and pretty and successful as her is treated this way, what would people say about me if I came out?!?”
Thank God JoJo has a lot of family support and a good relationship with Kylie. I hope she just continues to succeed in life. Success truly is the best revenge.
People just enjoy being mean sometimes, and, in this case, bigoted.
She annoys me to no end lol. But I’m not her audience. I am, however, happy she found the strength to harness her power and be precisely who she is. My youngest son has been staying with one of his older brothers the past few weeks for a kind of vacation. When he got home, he look relieved but horrified. He told me he was so scared because the visit opened his eyes to how everything is on the precipice of change…his eyes began to water. Apparently his brother didn’t live up to some saint standard (surprise surprise), and I think it confirmed and introduced a great many things for my soon to be 16yo.
Anywho, he was behaving tortured around me, so I demanded he unload lol. God he was so nervous and practically crying. What on earth could be so debilitating (I already knew), so I said it for him. He was like, “I don’t know about gay, but I’m certainly bisexual.” I’m like, that’s lovely honey, finding people you love and want to be around is, in the end, all that matters. We hugged and his eyes pierced through me trying to locate something negative with his mouth agape. “What? You expected something different from your crazy mom?” He’s the youngest of three boys so of course he’s touchy about them knowing, but when you love someone, you pay attention. We’ve all kinda known for a while. I just feel guilty about how distraught he was carrying this around. I wanted to let him come to me, maybe that wasn’t entirely handled properly.
Trying your best, loving your kids for who they are and continuing to grow *is* handling it properly. You’re a good mom.
I’m happy for her and so glad she can be herself, but I wish she would at the very least loosen her ponytail. That traction alopecia is getting out of hand. I feel for her poor scalp. I’m sorry my comment is superficial.