Authors: Brennan Schmidt and Madison Wilson
JoJo Siwa, the 17-year-old performer and YouTube personality, is known for her tight ponytails, big bows, and glitter. On Thursday, January 22, she came out to her social media followers as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. The star posted a TikTok of her singing Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and later tweeted a picture of her in a shirt that says, “Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever.” with the caption, “My cousin got me a new shirt.”
My cousin got me a new shirt pic.twitter.com/DuHhgRto7b
— JoJo Siwa (@itsjojosiwa) January 22, 2021
Siwa, who started her career on the hit reality series Dance Moms and now has a contract with Nickelodeon, a solo music career, and a popular YouTube channel, has created a personal brand based in positivity, face paint, glitter, and lots of dancing. She uses her platform to speak out against bullying and promotes being yourself and not letting the haters get you down. This has made her a popular role model for kids, and Time Magazine included her in their 2020 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Siwa’s news broke the internet and received mixed responses. Analysis of the social media conversation around JoJo Siwa for January 21-23, 2021 shows 285k mentions of the keywords “JoJo” or “JoJo Siwa.” Peak conversation was between 5pm and 6pm on January 22. Her TikTok video went viral, with over 5.9M likes, 34.8M views, and 320.3k comments.
The overall conversation sentiment was 28% negative, 18% positive, and 53% neutral.
Conversation during this time circulated around the following:
- Discussion about her “label” as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
- Celebrities and social media influencers like Coleen Ballenger, Hyram, James Charles, Tana Moungeau, and Lil Was X expressing love and support for being so young and showing her true self.
- General users expressing confusion about what the TikTok meant. People thought she was just singing to a good song or showing her support for the LGBTQAI+ community.
- Parents expressing disapproval for the teen star as a role model.
The negativity didn’t seem to bother Siwa. On January 23, she hosted an Instagram Live to express her excitement for being out and gratitude for the support she received. She talked about how her sexuality and how she does not have a label for it. She also responded to comments on her Instagram post and replied, “Okay!” to a mother who commented that she would not let her daughter watch her anymore.
With that, Siwa is living up to her own words:
“Here’s the thing – if you have one person who says something mean to you, you can’t listen to them because there are 10 people who are saying something nice to you” (Source: Kidspot).
Full Analysis:
Purpose:
Analyze the social media conversation about JoJo Siwa’s coming out announcement on January 22, 2021.
Analysis Time Frame:
January 21-23, 2021
Announcement Posts:
TikTok Video: 34.8M views, 5.9M likes, and 320.3k comments
Tweet: 159.5k retweets, 1.2M likes, and 20.9k comments
Overall Trends:
Peak conversation occurred on Thursday, January 22, 2021 (the day she posted her TikTok and tweeted).
Initial responses expressed confusion with the meaning of the TikTok video, with users wondering if there was a deeper meaning beyond just singing to a good song or showing support for the LGBTQIA+ community. After Siwa’s follow-up tweet, responses shifted to more expressions of love and support.
Sentiment:
Negative: 28%
Positive: 18%
Neutral: 53%
Keyword Groups:
“JoJo” or “JoJo Siwa” (285k mentions)
Popular Words:
“Parents” was mentioned 77.1k times and with a 79% negative sentiment on Twitter. Discussion around this keyword generally had two themes:
- Parents no longer supporting JoJo Siwa as a role model for their children because of her sexuality.
- Others commenting on how parents who do not support the LGBTQIA+ community might react to Siwa’s announcement.
“Networks” was mentioned 60.9k times and with a 98% negative sentiment on Twitter. “Reason” was mentioned 62.8k times and with a 96% negative sentiment. These keywords were tied to a tweet from @bigfatmeg calling Siwa’s announcement brave because she mainly works in children’s entertainment and could upset the networks she works with.
“Queen” was mentioned 16k times with an 84% positive sentiment and 1% negative sentiment on Twitter. Most of these posts were in support of Siwa and called her a “queen” for coming out to a young audience at such a young age.
Follow-up Conversations:
Pink News and Daily Mail both shared special pages on their Snapchat stories about Siwa’s coming out. Pink News focused more on Siwa’s life and accomplishments as an advocate for anti-bullying, as well as her coming out. Daily Mail used quotes and video clips from Siwa’s Instagram Live and talked about how she did not have a label for her sexuality.
After her Instagram Live on January 23, Siwa was the victim of a criminal prank where someone called the police department, alleged that she was shooting people at her house, and a SWAT team arrived. “Swatting” has been known to be pulled on celebrities that are not liked. Social media responses to this incident were very angry, with people expressing their disappointment that a 17-year-old girl could not come out without being attacked.
