Former Dance Moms star and social media phenomenon JoJo Siwa came out last week through a series of social media posts.
The first, a TikTok of featuring her and other LGBTQ+ stars dancing to Paramore's "Ain't It Fun." The second, a Twitter post where Siwa wore a "Best. Gay. Cousin. Ever." t-shirt, which currently has over 1.3 million likes.
And earlier this week on Instagram, Siwa opened up about how she identifies.
"I always believed that my person was just going to be my person," explained the 17-year-old. "And if that person happened to be a boy, great, and if that person happened to be a girl, great!"
"Right now, I'm super-duper happy and I want to share everything with the world, but I also want to keep things in my life private until they are ready to be public. Right now what matters is that you guys know that no matter who you love, that it's OK."
Siwa has received an outpouring of love and support from straight and LGBTQ+ fans, including stars like Lil Nas X and Ellen DeGeneres. In the last week on Twitter, usage of the pink bow emoji has grown by 12 percent and the rainbow emoji by 23 percent.
But not everyone is supportive.
"My daughter will never watch you again," wrote one particularly hateful Instagram commenter.
But Siwa's clapback was simple and effective:
"Okay!"
Tell 'em, JoJo! In the words of RuPaul, "I got no time to hate people who hate me. I'm too busy loving the people who love me."
Someone screenshotted the exchange and shared it to Twitter and the post currently has over half a million likes. Siwa's simple existence shouldn't be controversial, but we hope she can inspire others to be their authentic selves.
