As she turns 18, JoJo Siwa isn’t like any of the teen breakouts who came before her.
Celebrating her first Pride just months after coming out, shes ready for another big jump.
“Because then I miss out on the fun.”
JoJo Siwa.Alexandra Gavillet for EW
After all, she’s already taken more than one big leap in her life.
“I’m a daredevil,” she adds.
A double platinum anti-bullying track “Boomerang.”
JoJo Siwa.Alexandra Gavillet for EW
More than 80 million hair bows sold.
Twelve editions of JoJo’s Closet, her Target clothing line.
Her doll outselling Barbie at Walmart in its first year.
JoJo Siwa.Alexandra Gavillet for EW
Being named toTime’s 100 most influential people of 2020 list.
Boisterousness that would exhaust the Energizer Bunny.
In person, therainbow in human formjoke rings true.
JoJo Siwa.Alexandra Gavillet for EW
“I knew it, I knew it,” she quips.
Then in January, she came out and the world did a 180.
“Nothing encapsulates the lesbian experience more than that.
NOTHING,” video creator and LGBTQ advocate Steph Froschtweeted.
Still, she says her announcements were “so unplanned.”
Read more exclusive details from EW aboutSiwa’s social media coming out.
“Everybody” views her as different, she says.
But Prew can handle her being “theJoJo Siwa” while loving the real JoJo underneath.
“She obviously knows what I do.
There’ll be times where I’ll be like, ‘I hate talking about myself like this.’
But Iamfamous and I am a celebrity.
I am high profile.
She’ll be like, ‘You have every right to say that.
That’s what you do.'”
And when she doubts her singing abilities, Prew acts as her biggest cheerleader.
“She’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah?
How many arenas did you sell out last year?’
And I was like, ‘97,'” she says, reenacting her sheepish expression.
“And she’ll be like, ‘And you’re able to’t sing?'”
Then Siwa goes back to sleep until 9 a.m. And then does it all over again the next day.
“It’s a lot,” she admits of the Tetris-like process of coordinating their schedules.
“It’s worth it though.”
“I had the world convinced.
I think I even had myself convinced, honestly,” she says.
“I gave it a shot and I was like, ‘This isn’t for me.'”
“And any time I could have anything rainbow, I would get rainbow.
June’s my favorite month to shop because of all the Pride clothes.”
“Being called a gay icon, honestly, I think is the biggest honor,” she says.
Turns out a year later, I am very much so gay."
It’s full speed ahead for Siwa for the rest of 2021 and beyond.
It’s her first live-action feature film and features Siwa playing a version of herself.
Initially told she’d be playing “the spirit animal of JoJo,” she rejected the notion.
“I said, ‘JoJo is JoJo.
JoJo’s not a character.
JoJo’s not a guinea pig.
JoJo’s a human, and it’s me.'”
“I do love acting, and it’s really easy,” she says.
She also doesn’t waste time agonizing over decisions.
“Things are just very clear to me.
If someone’s not being hung out with, let’s go hang out with them.
Somebody isn’t being [included], let’s include them.
We’re ordering pizza and somebody likes cheese and somebody likes pepperoni?
Let’s get both.”
Jessalynn shot down the idea.
And I’m not talking stars I’m talking people," Kaufman says.
And I was like, ‘Okay, got it.
Thank you for that.'"
Siwa was also adept at and willing to pivot as needed.
Its music video has since racked up nearly a billion views.
In the few public missteps she’s made, Siwa promptly addressed blowback on her own platforms.
Especially since coming out, she doesn’t bother dealing with naysayers.
A recent exception was how she handled parents who bashed her sexuality on Instagram.
Her 16th birthday included a one-hour special, a televised birthday party, and special sweet 16 product lines.
This year, she made the call to not do anything huge with Nick for her 18th.
She sprained her ankle recently, but admits she didn’t get an X-ray like she should’ve.
“My mind doesn’t shut off, and my muscles feel like they’re shaking inside my body.
It feels like I’m running, but I’m laying down.”
Siwa also acknowledges that her stubbornness is “a blessing and a curse.”
Once she’s set on something, “my mind does not change.”
But there’s also a kissing scene, one Siwa desperately hopes won’t make the cut.
“I’m madly in love and I do not want to kiss another human,” she says.
“Especially because it’s a man.”
“That’s what they look at me as, not some character, not some fictional thing.
And so it’s going to be a little weird.”
She sounds completely sure of herself as she states, “I’m not about it.
I’m trying to get it pulled so bad.
It’ll get pulled.”
It’s no secret that Siwa’s real goal was to be the nextHannah Montana.
Siwa and her team insist that won’t be the case for her.
“There will be nothing shocking to the world like, ‘Whoa, JoJo is 18.
What happened here?'”
“JoJo doesn’t take a left turn, it’s not in her DNA.”
“I don’t want JoJo to be a bad girl.
I don’t want JoJo to be a nasty girl,” she says.
So wasGwen Stefani: “She said, ‘Keep your clothes on,'” Jessalynn recalls.
“JoJo was probably 14 when that happened, and that was really good advice.”
“I think it’s gross and it’s not who I am.
It’s not who I want around me.
I have a rule.
If somebody puts me in a position to do something bad, they’re out.
It’s an automatic ‘You’re out.'”
Coming out could have been a risk to that brand if this were five or 10 years earlier.
Siwa laughs about the video now, and doesn’t seem too bothered.
She says Prew even plays it for her multiple times a day, just to annoy her.
But she also calls out that it’s projecting an adult gaze onto her innocent childhood friendship.
“First of all, absolutely not.
I love Kalani like a sister till the day I would die.
I would take a bullet for her.
Also, I was 11.
Of course, coming out is still a risk for millions of people across the globe.
“Seeing Freddie and seeing how he just lived his life, it was his normal.
And I realized that it can bemynormal,” she says.
Siwa’s new normal isn’t likely to look that different than before, or not anytime soon.
She recently announced new products includingStrawberry Bop Cerealwith General Mills and a Suave hair care line.
“The world right now is in such a great place with me,” she adds.
“There was a phase where a lot of the world hated me, like teenagers.
And I think now we’re homies and we’re cool again.”
“Skydiving is never going to happen.
As much as I say it’s going to, it’s not going to,” she concedes.
To heck with plans anyways.
I’ve sharedeverythingwith the world.
This is the piece of myself that I have been the happiest with.”
Motion Direction & Photography by Alexandra Gavillet.
