JoJo Siwa is happier than ever since coming out as part of the LBGTQ community, but it took some hard times for her to get there.
The former reality star, 17, recently opened up to People magazine about the risk of coming out to the public when she has such a large fan base of kids.
“I have a lot that could have gone away because of my love life,” she said. “I was thinking that all the comments were going to be nice and supportive, and they weren't. A lot of them were, 'I'm never buying your merch again. My daughter's never watching you again.' I couldn't sleep for three days."
But eventually she found a new way to think about the negative comments.
“My thing is, I don't want people to watch my videos or buy my merchandise if they aren't going to support not only me, but the LGBTQ community,” she said. "I've never gotten this much support from the world. I think this is the first time that I've felt so personally happy."
The singer and dancer has arrived at a positive space, though she's still in the process of understanding her sexuality.
"I still don't know what I am. It's like, I want to figure it out,” Siwa told People.
“I have this joke. (My girlfriend's) name is Kylie. And so I say that I'm Ky-sexual," she continued. "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.
"I like queer," she added. "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."
Siwa came out in January after fans began to speculate that she was sending a message about her sexuality when she lip-synced to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” in a TikTok video. She followed that up with a photo of herself wearing a T-shirt with the words, “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever.” She eventually revealed that she has a girlfriend, Kylie Prew, 18, who supported her decision to come out publicly.
But both Siwa and her family knew about her identity long before she announced it to the world.
“I’ve known since I was little,” she said.
“I did too,” her mom, Jessalyn Siwa, added. “A mother knows.”