From her new “mature” rebrand to supporting controversial celebrities, child star, Jojo Siwa has been receiving a ton of backlash on the recent choices she is making for herself.
Who is Jojo Siwa?
Joelle Joanie “Jojo” Siwa rose to fame in 2015 on the reality show Dance Moms, which she joined during the fourth season after being a contestant on Abby’s Ultimate Dance competition
( A Dance Moms spin-off). Because of her bubbly personality and iconic colorful bows, she quickly became many people’s favorite on the show.
While being on Dance Moms, Siwa started her YouTube career where she would make videos about her daily routines, hair tutorials, etc. This is also where she started her singing career. Siwa released her first song Boomerang which was extremely successful. She soon started to sell her line of bows, called JoJo Bows, because they were a staple of the Jojo Siwa look that everyone knew and loved.
Following being on Dance Moms for two seasons, Siwa was signed to Nickelodeon where she was in multiple shows and films. She also continued to create music and expanded her brand from bows to toys, clothes, and accessories.
As Siwa got older, she slowly started to drop her childlike appearance and find herself, while still trying to cater to her fans, who were mostly young children. But it was after Siwa came out as a lesbian in 2021 that she started to gain a more mature audience.
For a while, Siwa’s approach to a more mature presence was going very well because she was not trying hard to make people believe she was not a little girl anymore. But this recently changed after she released her new song, “Karma.”
Before releasing her song, Siwa gave disclaimers that her new content was not made for children, and this caused lots of curiosity in the viewers. Siwa also explained that this song was her entering her new adult era. Many people feel like she is trying too hard to shock everyone with her new rebranding.
This song has caused nothing but controversy for Siwa. This is because many people believed she claimed to have written this song when it was created by Rock Mafia for singer, Miley Cyrus.
While it is not true that she claimed to have written the song, she did claim that her version is completely different from the original song that was pitched to her. This was proven wrong when people found an unreleased version of the song from an artist named Brit Smith that sounded identical to Siwa’s version.
When Siwa was asked how she felt about people thinking she stole the song from Brit Smith, she explained that she didn’t steal the song and that she didn’t even know who Brit Smith was.
Siwa is also receiving a lot of backlash for saying that she created a new genre of music called “gay pop” because a lot of other artists fall into this category of music. Siwa defended herself by saying “So, here’s the thing. Gay pop, right, is a thing that people have done, but it is not an official genre of music,” and “You know what I mean? It is a style, but it is how there’s rap, there’s rock, there’s R&B, there’s pop. Gay pop is not an official genre of music. If you look on the iTunes charts, there is no, there’s a pop chart.”
But this is not the first time Siwa has been involved in a controversial drama. Back in 2023, Youtuber Colleen Ballinger, a close friend of Siwa’s, was exposed for having inappropriate relationships with minors. When Siwa spoke out about the situation she defended Ballinger’s actions and had nothing but nice things to say about her. This disappointed fans because not only did she defend an alleged child groomer, but she essentially said that victims were lying. A lot of people believe that Siwa has a form of Stockholm syndrome since she and Ballinger became friends when Siwa was only twelve years old, and they have a seventeen-year age gap.
It appears that Siwa doesn’t have any intentions of going back to the child-friendly celebrity that she once was. Her release of “Karma” started a new era in her career that she will continue to play into. Many people are disappointed in the direction that Siwa chose to take her career down because they feel that she could have given a more grown-up approach without trying so hard to be edgy.
When asked what Siwa could have done better in her switch from child to adult, 10th grader Sanika Young says, “The way she dresses and how she answers questions in interviews, it’s just not giving maturity which is what she should be going for instead of bad girl” She also explains that Siwa should have tried to give the people what they wanted to see instead of trying to be different because it would have made people appreciate her more instead of making fun of her.
Hopefully, soon Siwa will realize that her actions are what will make her seem more mature and that trying to play into what an “adult” should act like is only making her seem more childish
