JoJo Siwa’s mom’s advice: Haters don’t deserve “even one second of your life”
For 15-year-old YouTube sensation JoJo Siwa, singing and dancing in music videos like her viral smash, “D.R.E.A.M.” requires hitting all the right moves.
Her mother Jess Siwa has a smart move for dealing with bullies, trolls and social-media meanies.
She told JoJo: “If they really bother you, just delete ’em and block ’em. Don’t even let ’em come on your page,” Jess tells TODAY anchor Sheinelle Jones in a new episode of “Through Mom’s Eyes,” a digital-exclusive series for TODAY Parents.
“In the beginning, (JoJo) was very upset. And she came downstairs, and she was crying. ‘All of these people don’t like me, and I’m gonna reply.’”
Mom nixed that notion in a flash, telling her daughter: “You’re not gonna reply ... Why would you give these people even one second of your life? If you wanna reply to anybody, you reply to the people that like you.”
Good advice. But Jess, 44, admits she doesn’t have all the answers. Like all moms and dads she sometimes questions her choices. Indecision is part of part of parenting — especially when your child is a celebrity. What would, say, Miley Cyrus’s mom do?
“I don’t have Tish Cyrus’s phone number,” Jess says. “I can’t ask her what she’s doing ... The hardest thing is knowing what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s good, what’s bad.”
She adds, she’s just “trying to make good decisions.”
And in the meantime she’s savoring the success of her daughter, who’s gone from “Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition” and “Dance Moms” to viral video superstardom with millions of fans (as most girls between the ages of five and 12 can tell you).
That includes 7.9 million followers on Instagram, 422,000 on Twitter and 9.2 million YouTube subscribers.
At the Siwa home — where Jones got a tour and an impromptu lesson in dance steps — JoJo showed Jones her collection of big hair bows, which, like everything glittery, are part of her brand. And jackets and Tees don’t just bedazzle themselves.
Jess says that one of her favorite places in the house is the “craft-slash-rhinestone room,” which is just what it sounds like: A DIY bling command center, where sparkle is the name of the game.
“I’m currently ... rhinestoning,” JoJo tells Jones. “I’m making my wow wear outfit, as my mom would call it.”
And while many people would call Jess a classic stage mother, her famous teen says otherwise. “A lotta people think, like, my mom is crazy. A lotta people think that she’s like, ‘No, you have to make a YouTube video, and you have to perform.’”
But her mom is, JoJo corrects, “the opposite of that.” If she wanted to pursue her other dream — being a surgeon — her mom would support that, she says.
For now, it’s about performing, as JoJo prepares for a Nickelodeon-sponsored tour that launches in May, where she’ll cover her hits and this lyric: “You believe it, you achieve it. You just D.R.E.A.M.”
Ask her mom. “I’m just enjoying my life with my kids,” Jess says. “I’m living our dreams and just enjoying it.”