JoJo Siwa first captured hearts on Dance Moms with her incredible confidence, eye-catching bows, and powerful dance moves. The young dance sensation has since amassed a loyal fan base for her incredible moves and outspokenness about her sexuality.
Is JoJo Siwa gay, bi, or straight? Keep reading to get the full scoop on JoJo Siwa’s romantic history, coming-out journey, and current projects.
RELATED: Whatever You Do, Do NOT Call JoJo Siwa A Lesbian
Who Is JoJo Siwa?
American dancer, singer, and social media influencer JoJo Siwa was born Joelle Joanie Siwa on May 19, 2003. Siwa entered the public spotlight when she joined Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, a dance reality series where contestants battle it out for a cash prize and a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet Academy.
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The series was primarily judged by dance instructor Abby Lee Miller. Despite being the youngest competitor in Season 2, she beat older and more experienced competitors to finish in the top five. Afterward, Siwa appeared on Dance Moms, a show that focused on Miller and her students.
After auditioning for Miller’s dance competition team in 2014, Siwa made the cut for the group in 2015. She then released the pop singles “Boomerang” and “I Can Make U Dance” in 2016. The former was a song about online bullying, which immediately resonated with audiences and led to the music video getting over 950 million views. Because of the success of her dance career and her social media reach, JoJo Siwa was part of Time’s annual 100 Most Influential People in the World list in 2020.
In 2021, JoJo Siwa competed on Dancing With The Stars with partner Jenna Johnson, making her part of the first same-sex dance partnership in the history of the show. Recently, Siwa was announced as one of the new judges for the popular dance reality show So You Think You Can Dance. She’s also a huge social media star, with over 12 million subscribers on YouTube and over 32 million followers on TikTok.
The Truth About JoJo Siwa’s Sexuality
JoJo Siwa is pansexual. Siwa first hinted that she was part of the LGBT community in January 2021, after her viral “Born This Way” TikTok lip sync video. A few days after the video went viral, Siwa proudly shared a picture of herself in a shirt that said “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever”, saying that one of her cousins gifted her with it.
Soon after that, she went on an Instagram Live chat with her fans, and one person asked, “What label are you?” Siwa replied, “I have thought about this, but the reason I’m not going to say this answer is because I don’t really know this answer. I think humans are awesome, I think humans are really incredible people. Right now, I’m super duper happy and I want to share everything with the world but I also want to keep things in my life private until they are ready to be public.”
In April 2021, Siwa shared how she identifies with People. She admitted her feelings of uncertainty, saying, “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 added, “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.”
Siwa clarified in the same interview that, despite her doubts about the use of certain terms, she was comfortable with using the terms “pansexual” and “queer”. “I like queer,” she said. “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.”
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Whom Has JoJo Siwa Dated?
JoJo Siwa’s first relationship in the public eye was with TikTok celebrity Mark Bontempo. They dated from August to November of 2020. She later revealed in February 2021 that she was dating her best friend Kylie Prew, who had asked her if she wanted to be her girlfriend a month prior.
Siwa credits Prew with playing an instrumental role in her coming-out journey. In an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in February 2021, she revealed that Prew’s encouragement was instrumental in her decision to post her “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever” shirt selfie and implicitly come out.
Siwa said, “We’re doing this TikTok, and I’m like, ‘I think this is going to out me.’ And I was like, I don’t really mind, because it is true. I do have the most amazing, wonderful, perfect, most beautiful girlfriend in the whole world.”
Siwa and Prew took a short break from their relationship in late 2021. However, the loved-up pair confirmed in May 2022 that they are officially together again.
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How JoJo Siwa Feels About Calling Herself A Lesbian
While Siwa feels “pansexual” and “queer” best describe her current identity, she has displayed some discomfort with the term “lesbian”. In a Yahoo! Life interview, the young LGBT star said, “You can be queer and be girly…A lot of times, lesbians are taken to be masculine. If you’re a lesbian…Do you want to be a boy? That’s not the case. There are plenty of very feminine lesbians.”
She elaborated, “I don’t like the word itself. Les-bi-an. It’s just like a lot. But I mean, at the end of the day, that’s what I am. It’s like the word ‘moist.’ It’s just like…ugh!“ While she’s publicly embraced her title as a “gay icon”, she doesn’t seem to think the word “lesbian” best describes her personality or identity.
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Is JoJo Siwa Gay, Straight, Or Bi? The Bottom Line
JoJo Siwa is pansexual. She prefers to refer to herself as “pansexual” or “queer”, and her openness has inspired her young fans to explore their own sexuality with honesty and fearlessness. We can’t wait to catch her on So You Think You Can Dance, and we’re excited to find out what other projects she has in the works!
RELATED: JoJo Siwa Reveals Girlfriend On Instagram To Mark One-Month Anniversary
Donston
The last identity she publicly embraced was “lesbian”. Just because she said that she’s uncomfortable with the word doesn’t mean she disowns it. She flat-out said “that’s what I am”.
Also, no one is wondering anything about Jojo. All her quotes are within like the last year and have been widely publicized. So, this article serves no purpose. It really is a shame that the majority of popular queer sites are so messy, so full of misinformation, so identity pushing, and so willing to use young public figures for easy clicks.
DarkZephyr
Donston, you really seem angrier and angrier and preachier and preachier every time you post.
JoJo had the following to say in 2021 in an interview with People Magazine:
“I like queer. 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.”
Donston
Just a couple months ago she gave an interview where she referred to herself as “lesbian”. She was critical of the word and its usage, but she referred to herself as such. Do you not remember the whole controversy around it? Hell, the quotes are in this article. I don’t give a damn about identities. But if you’re gonna continue to exploit young people and their journeys, continue to push identity politics above all else and, continue making articles needlessly “speculating” about people’s sexualities and identities, the least you can do is keep up with what they’ve most recently presented. That’s why the “anger” is there.
DarkZephyr
@Donston
My point is that there is a reason that this article called her “pansexual”. She called herself that. She also explained that she calls herself “gay” despite what she “technically is” because its just easier than having to explain herself to others.
“Identity Politics”
The way this term gets used and thrown around (including the way you are using it) is becoming ever more nauseating.
“Gay” and “Lesbian” are words that signify people who are homosexual. Homosexuality is a sexual orientation, not an entire “identity”. Sure, being a gay man is a *part* of my identity, but its not the sum and total of it.
That being said, to deny or ignore this part of my identity would be f*cking stupid. And a LOT of what certain politicians are trying to do…the way many people try to vote affects me and many others based on this part of our identities can have seismic impact in our lives, on our families and relationships. You damned well better believe I am going to get involved in any politics that impact my f*cking life and the lives of those I love.
As for your beef with Queerty writing articles about “Identities”, what the hell would you expect a blog called “queerty” to write about if not LGBT themes?
Also, if you “don’t give a damn” about it, why do you come here in the first place? You could always just move on to some other site that suits your tastes, couldn’t you?
Bromancer7
Who?
Ronbo
She is the cutie with the big bows. She seems both talented and nice.
DarkZephyr
The article says who it is, perhaps your glasses need to be wiped clean?
Den
A better question is who are you, and why do you and so many people feel expressing your ignorance about the celebrity of certain individuals somehow casts aspersions on them? I think we can all be pretty certain that you will never see a video of yours get almost, 1,000,000,000 views, never have many tens of millions of followers on social media (regardless of whether that is an admirable accomplishment or not), never get the opportunity to judge nationally televised contests. And she is not quite 20.
I’m not even much of a follower of popular culture, and I’d recognize her on the street.
Bromancer7
@Den you can pull your nose out of her ass. She’s never gonna know who you are.
Jack Meoff
What a waste of time article. A very long-winded way of saying not very much of anything new.