JoJo Siwa Said Her “Amazing, Wonderful, Perfect” Girlfriend Encouraged Her to Come Out
Our hearts are soaring over this story.
Last month, JoJo Siwa officially came out publicly as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, sharing with fans that her coming out experience has been “really awesome” and that she’s “never, ever, ever been this happy before.” In a new interview with Jimmy Fallon, she opened up a bit more, revealing that she has a new girlfriend who was “super encouraging” of her decision to share her identity publicly.
It seems that when she agreed to star in a TikTok video with the LGBTQ+ TikTok collective Pride House LA, she had a feeling that her appearance might “out” her, something she’d never before spoken about. It was Siwa’s girlfriend, whom she calls “the most amazing, wonderful, perfect, most beautiful girlfriend in the whole world,” who encouraged her to confirm her identity, she told Fallon in the Wednesday, February 3rd episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
It’s not something I’m ashamed of, she added. I just haven’t shown the internet yet.
While she was used to seeing speculation about her sexuality, plenty of fans were quick to comment about it in the TikTok clip, which featured the group dancing to Paramore’s “Ain’t It Fun.” Siwa initially wasn’t sure whether she should confirm it herself, but changed course because she noted, “I want people to know that it’s okay.”
She decided to then share a TikTok video set to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” then, of course, the frenzy around that TikTok clip inspired her to share a photo of herself wearing a t-shirt from her cousin that read “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever.” after previously sharing it only with her close friends and family members.
“I was on FaceTime with [my girlfriend], and we were just talking about all the love that came in, and we were both like, technically I still haven’t confirmed it,” she recalled. “I was like, I kind of just want to post this picture on my real story. She was super encouraging.”
Siwa added, laughing, “The funny thing is 10 minutes before I posted that, my publicist was like, ‘Are you going to confirm it?’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to confirm it yet.’ Ten minutes later, I post that picture.”
It seems she knew that coming out publicly was a risky move, especially with her fanbase of millions of people around the world. She shared, “My thing with ‘coming out’ is it can be a very scary thing. Of course not everybody in the world is going to accept it right now, but there are so many people that are going to accept it right now. And like I say, even if there’s a million people—that’s a lot of people—that don’t accept it, there’s 100 million people that do. And I think that’s really important—100 million is a lot of people.”
While she didn’t want to make it a big deal—because she notes, “it’s just who I am”—it seems the love and support of her family, friends, fans, and her girlfriend means a lot to her. “Technically, that was a really big risk that I took, posting that,” Siwa added. “But 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.”
I’m just so happy, because now I get to share what makes me the happiest with the world, she said. And it makes my heart so happy.
Our hearts are equally happy for her and for her fans who have such an awesome role model. Props to her for sharing her story on her own terms—it’s sure to have a lasting impact on so many young members of the LGBTQ+ community, and that is beyond priceless.