Yes, JoJo Siwa is aware that many people make fun of her – and that’s okay with her.
In a new cover story for LadygunnSiwa spoke at length about her relationship with fame, revealing that as long as people are talking about her, she feels like she’s done her job. “I’m an attention whore,” she said. “My favorite thing on this earth is to entertain and make people smile and laugh, whether they’re laughing with me or at me. Of course, nobody likes to be hated, but I like to be entertaining and that’s how people are entertained.”
Siwa further elaborated on her point, adding that she felt “any attention is attention,” and shared an anecdote about correcting her management team on their stated goals for her career. “I just signed with new management, and they’re amazing, amazing people,” she said. “They were like, ‘All right, we need to make sure people rally around you and start really liking you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh no, that’s not what it’s about.'”
The “Guilty Pleasure” singer said her relationship with attention stemmed in part from her admiration for YouTubers Jake and Logan Paul. “I was getting so much of my social media marketing and inspiration from them back then,” she said. “Their views, their numbers, their marketing – they were geniuses. They’re still geniuses… I just wanted to be like them. And so I thought, ‘How can I do this differently than in my world?'”
Siwa managed to capture her fans’ attention with her cover photo for the magazine, which featured her wearing a rhinestone-encrusted corset in the shape of a man’s torso and a rhinestone-encrusted codpiece. Rising hip-hop star GloRilla even shared her thoughts on the photo, simply writing on X: “Ok, Moose Knuckle.”
The story comes after a year of headlines for Siwa. When her “Bad Girl” single “Karma” was released in April, fans were shocked by the singer’s Kiss-inspired music video look and her jerky dance moves. When she told Billboard When she stated in a video interview that she wanted to create a new genre called “Gay Pop,” she received harsh criticism from fellow queer artists and critics.
But Siwa sees it this way: Her plan worked. “Karma is still a catchy tune. It’s crazy that it still has some relevance five months later,” she said in her interview. “And that’s the point.”
