Jojo Siwa Breaks Down 'Dance Moms' Days, Coming Out to the Public & Rebranding with 'Karma'

I think that the world right now

is watching every move I make with the most critical eye.

And I think something that I'm really grateful for is

I don't give [beeps].

Hey, everybody. I am JoJo Siwa.

And today, I'm gonna be looking back at some of the moments

that have shaped my career and my identity.

This is Becoming JoJo Siwa.

[funky music]

She's just so tiny.

Well, I love so much about watching clips from AUDC

is genuinely how young and tiny I was.

I mean, nine years old, my first TV show. I was a peanut.

It like makes me emotional.

You don't even know what you got yourself into there.

Now you're stuck, kid. [chuckles]

It's interesting because I didn't really realize

that I didn't have a normal childhood

until my childhood was over, if that makes sense.

'Cause it was, to me, it was my normal.

And kids are so naive.

You don't really know what's happening.

And I think at the like very end of my childhood,

so like 16, 17, I was like, Wait a second,

this is what high school was like for you?

What? That's not what high school was like for me.

I feel like it really shaped me to be who I am.

I don't wish it was any different.

I realized that there was stuff that I missed out on

or stuff that I didn't get to do

or stuff that was different for me.

But I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Nowadays, I think it's definitely

evolved over the last 11 years

where I just saw this clip on my way over here

of this little boy, he's four years old and he was like,

I'm marrying my best friend one day.

The person in the video was like,

Oh, who are you marrying? And the little boy was like,

My friend Jack. He's really cool.

And I was like, for a 4-year-old to be able to say that now,

it was a four-year-old little boy

saying that he was gonna marry a four-year-old little boy.

Like that, just, it was precious

'cause obviously they're not thinking of

all the things that come with it, but it was okay for him

to just like think he's marrying another boy.

Whereas at this point in time when I was nine, it was like,

What boy do you have a crush on?

Not, Oh, who do you have a crush on? You know what I mean?

So I think if it would've been more normalized,

I definitely would've been a little gay rat

at nine years old but it wasn't normalized yet.

So I am still very straight at this time.

[funky music]

She deserves to be on the pyramid.

She was in the group dance.

She deserves nothing.

Oh yeah, I love this clip.

It's weird because I feel like

people see Dance Moms, right?

And they're like, Oh, Abby's such a mean dance teacher.

Abby's just a realistic dance teacher.

She is representation of

a lot of dance teachers in the world.

It's the competitive dance world especially

is not the healthiest environment.

And I always say, you're either a good dancer

or you're healthy, you can't be both.

That's sad. It shouldn't be like that.

There's a lot of teachers that aren't like that.

But growing up, I mean Abby was, believe it or not,

not my toughest, hardest dance teacher.

I mean, I came into Dance Moms as a massive fan.

And so being a fan of Abby, I knew what I was getting into

and I was like, Please yell at me.

Like, I kind of liked it.

Even like to this day, I'll have my mom watch performance

I'll be like, Did you like it? And she'll be like, Yeah.

And I'll be like, Okay, now tell me

what was wrong with it.

And I thrive off of criticism off of hard push.

That's how I can become my best is by brutal honesty.

[funky music]

♪ I'm gonna come back like a boomerang ♪

If only we knew what Boomerang was gonna do for my career.

Boomerang is such a power anthem in not a cheesy way.

That was the original goal with the song

was to make a song that was inspiring, that was powerful,

that was anti-bullying but not cheesy and not annoying.

You know what I mean, and some may say Boomerang

is cheesy and annoying, I wouldn't say that.

And if somebody does, well then maybe they need

a different type of powerful song.

But it's cool to me that Boomerang is still as successful

as it was when it came out, if not more successful.

I mean the fact that it grows so much a day,

it's truly that like haters are gonna hate.

They keep talking that talk

but I'm gonna keep walking my walk.

Honestly, I found out that Boomerang hit a billion views.

I checked it all the time for the last few months

because it's always been getting close.

And I was like, it just spikes one day.

Like it couldn't hit it.

All of a sudden one day, I wake up from a text to my dad,

I wake up to a text from my dad.

Congrats on a billion views.

I was like, Oh, it must have hit it.

My dad fully gave me the spoiler. It's crazy, it's crazy.

[funky music]

Hi. You look so cute. Hi.

Oh, Little Miss Westie.

I found out that North was a fan back in the day

because Kim had tweeted something.

I saw it in rehearsals. I was 14 or 15 at the time.

I just like shot my shot with Kim and I was like,

If North ever wanted to like do a video,

I used to do this thing where I would like babysit

kids on YouTube, and so I would babysit Everly,

or babysit Tamon Oakley or Mini Jake Paul

or Mini JoJo Siwa Titus and Riot.

And I was like, It takes an hour, it is a lot of fun.

I'll make sure North has the best day ever.

And Kim was like, Oh my God, we would love that.

Can we film it for my show? And I was like,

Your show's 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians.'

Sure, I guess. We'll see if I can make that work.

We'll see if I can swing it.

And yeah, then it turned out to be

one of the greatest days of my life.

I remember they came over, paparazzi followed them over.

It was nuts. They came in, we did our thing, they left.

And when they left, me and my camera guy

just like looked at each other and we were like,

What the fuck just happened? Like, what?

I live for this.

[objects clattering]

Fabulous!

I'll never forget after we did that

and North sprinkled everywhere, we cut the cameras.

Kim Kardashian and North's mom

was like, Where's your broom? I'll sweep this up.

I was like, Absolutely not, Cinderella.

You will not sweep my floor.

Kim Kardashian, get outta here. I'll do it when you leave.

[funky music]

So honestly, I posted the best gay cousin shirt

before I posted it publicly,

but I put it on my close friend's story.

'Cause honestly for me that was kind of the easiest way

to come out to people.

I didn't want people to ask me if I had a crush

on a boy ever again so I was like, People need to know.

So I just chucked in on my close friend's story

so I could come out to my friends.

There was a lot of speculation at this point in time

in the world, Is JoJo gay? Is JoJo straight?

Is JoJo gay? Is JoJo straight?

And then I was on the phone with my girlfriend 2:00 AM

and I was like, Bam, I think I wanna put this

on my public page, and she was like, Okay, do it.

I did it. I fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning and was like, Whoa.

I don't think I really realized what I was doing,

if that makes sense.

I look back now and I'm only three years older

or four years older and I look back and I'm like,

Whoa, you were number one, a baby.

But number two, for a 17-year-old to know that and do that

and be brave enough to do that blows my mind now.

Whereas at the time I was just like,

Yeah, this is who I am. Post, share.

I'm happy. If you care, that's your fault, not mine.

Being so naive to the negativity that came with it

was honestly such a blessing in disguise.

I think a lot of times it's confused sexuality and sex life.

That's why it's mistaken that little kids can't be gay

because you're thinking the wrong things,

you know, you're not...

At this point in time, you know, I'm 17, I'm thinking,

Oh man, my girlfriend's so pretty.

I can't wait to hold her hand today.

Like, that's what we were thinking.

You know, you're thinking innocent things.

I think that's something that's so sweet

and that I got to come out at that age

in that persona and people actually got to look at me

and not see an adult who's been waiting their whole life

to bang a girl.

They got to see a kid come out, be proud, be happy,

be open about thinking girls are awesome

and move on with life.

[funky music]

[singer singing in foreign language]

[crowd clamoring]

Honestly, right after I came out getting asked

to be a part of the Dancing with the Stars was massive.

Getting to be the first same sex couple.

I don't think I at the time necessarily realized

what that was gonna do for the world

or the impact that that was gonna have, but it truly was...

It was one of the first times that the world as

a whole actually really appreciated me on social media,

I guess is a good way to put it.

I mean, the world saw me daily on social media,

but with Dancing with the Stars, it was kind of a flip.

People were tuning in weekly to see

what Jenna and I were gonna do.

The representation that that had

at the time, I didn't realize what it was,

but now I'm like, Wow, that's massive.

I loved the Argentine Tango because it was very intimate

but not as dramatic as like the Rumba was.

But it wasn't as just like frivolous as the Cha Cha was.

You had to be dialed in, you had to be controlled.

And Jenna and I had to make sure we had

that believable chemistry and we did.

Jenna did not let me slack at all that week.

She was like, This is our redemption dance.

We are redeeming ourselves.

We don't really have to redeem ourselves

because our Argentine Tango before was great,

but that dance, ah, honestly is my favorite from the season.

[funky music]

♪ Love is a bitch ♪

♪ I should have known better ♪

I love Karma so much.

But it's so bad compared to my new stuff.

I hate now that I shade Karma so much.

But looking back and comparing it to Guilty Pleasure,

comparing it to Choose Your Fighter

it's not even on the same playing field.

We knew back in the day that visually, people liked my bows.

People liked my crazy outfits. People liked when I danced.

They liked when I performed. They liked my music videos.

They liked my stories. They liked that.

And so we didn't know if that was gonna translate

into an adult world.

But then if you look at what was successful about Karma,

it was the dance from the music video,

the makeup and costume from the music video.

I mean, even like the me coming out

of the water in the music video.

Like, those moments from the music video are what hit.

And so it was really tried and true to me that like,

No, I really am visual

and people really do crave visuals

from me as an entertainer, as an artist.

And so here I am to keep providing them.

So Jake Paul back in the day used to do this thing

and he taught me this.

He would run with whatever was working

and that's with Karma, you know, what was working.

All of a sudden the teasers were working.

So I was like, Oh that, I'm gonna keep teasing, right?

Oh, me being a lunatic is working.

I'm gonna keep being a lunatic, but be even crazier.

Oh, the makeup's working. Let's do more with the makeup.

Oh, the dance is working, let's do the dance more.

And so for me it was really important

to kind of follow what was working,

but then also not let the world decide

what worked at the same time.

Making sure that I'm giving the world

what I want them to want, if that makes sense.

It's less about, you know, having a hit song,

but more about having a hit career.

Giving people something to look at, turn their head at.

I know considering I only got basically one vocal chord

instead of two that I don't have the vocal chops

to just be able to stand there and sing,

but I know that I can put on a show and entertain

and do a little bit more.

[funky music]

♪ I'm your guilty pleasure ♪

We did the damn thing. Oh, this new EP, get ready.

There is so many wack visions that I had to fight

to make come to life, but I made 'em happen

and I am so happy.

I think that the world right now

is watching every move I make with the most critical eye.

And I think something that I'm really grateful for is

I don't give a fuck.

I'm like, Okay, do it. I'm still gonna keep pushing.

Honestly, I didn't know if it was gonna be possible

because I loved Karma so much.

I was like, What am I gonna do now?

And now I'm like, Well 'Karma,'

you were fun while you lasted.

'Guilty Pleasure,' you're my baby now.

This outfit is my baby now.

I mean, I've never been so happy to be so filthy dirty.

Something that was fun for me

on set of Guilty Pleasure was obviously

I danced with girl girls now.

That's who I like. That's what I like.

And so that's very comfortable for me.

But in Guilty Pleasure I was like, You know what, no,

I wanna be straight for a moment here.

And what's so funny is when we were filming

getting to partner with the boy,

his name is Diego, versus the girl, Madison,

for some reason, me and Diego,

it was so fascinating to watch us dance together.

Me and Madison have great chemistry.

Me and Diego have great chemistry.

But watching me with a boy for the first time

and I think that's what it was, is like

for a boy for the first time we were like,

Huh, that oddly looks really flattering.

That's very strange, and we also gotta see me

in the girl's position for the first time.

'Cause normally if I'm partnering with a girl,

I am the boy in the position, so it's chaotic

but it is so fun.

There's a song called Choose Your Fighter, right?

And so there's a lyric in there, it's actually an ad lib

and it says, Some of my exes are no one,

some of my exes have fame.

And then there's an ad lib that says, You're welcome

and it's a little whisper of you're welcome.

And that is my kryptonite.

Also, another song on the EP called Balance Baby.

It goes, I like twirling in the ballroom,

twerking in the bedroom.

Something about that lyric

fulfills all my dreams 'cause it's true.

Thank you so much Them. That was becoming JoJo Siwa.