JoJo Siwa

Joelle Joanie "JoJo" Siwa (born May 19, 2003) is an American dancer, singer-songwriter, actress, YouTuber, and media personality.

Joelle Joanie Siwa was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 2003, to Jessalynn (née Lombardi), a professional dance instructor from Iowa, and Tom Siwa, a chiropractor from Nebraska.

She has one sibling, an older brother named Jayden Siwa, who is also a vlogger.

Siwa started her career as a top-5 finalist and the youngest contestant on the second season of Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition, produced by Abby Lee Miller of Dance Moms fame.

She appeared on the show with her mother and was eliminated in week 9.

Siwa soon began to appear on Dance Moms, beginning with auditioning for Miller's "ALDC" dance competition team in 2014 and being selected for the team in early 2015.

From 2015 to 2016, she appeared on two seasons of the reality television show Dance Moms alongside her mother, Jessalynn Siwa.

As a singer, she has released the singles "Boomerang" (2016) and "Kid in a Candy Store" (2017).

Siwa posts daily videos of her day-to-day life on her YouTube channel, "Its JoJo Siwa".

In May 2016, Siwa released "Boomerang" for download and a previous single, "I Can Make U Dance".

"Boomerang" addresses the subject of online bullying.

Its video has been viewed more than 950 million times and received over 5 million likes.

In 2016, Siwa released a line of hair bows in a collaboration with fashion accessory and jewelry company Claire's.

The line of hair bows, which were inspired by the hairbows Siwa is known herself for wearing, experienced particular success among primary school pupils in the UK, where some schools took to banning them for a variety of reasons, including peer pressure, causing distraction from work, the impairment of pupils' concentration, and violation of school dress policies.

Due to the bows' popularity, some stores also began selling similar bows.

In 2017, Siwa commented that her bows were a "symbol of power, confidence, believing-ness."

Siwa signed with Nickelodeon in 2017, appearing in the film Blurt! with Jace Norman and the show Lip Sync Battle Shorties with Nick Cannon.

Siwa later competed in season 3 of The Masked Singer as "T-Rex".

At the age of 16, she was the youngest contestant to appear on the show until Honey Boo Boo performed as one half of "Beach Ball" in season 6.

In 2018, Siwa was named the Breakout Artist of the Year by Vivid Seats.

In 2018, Siwa announced that she would be going on her first major concert tour in 2019, entitled D.R.E.A.M. The Tour.

She was scheduled to visit a mixture of theaters, outdoor amphitheaters and stadiums, as well as indoor arenas in a total of 52 cities across the United States and Canada.

Additionally, other performances would take place in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The tour was scheduled to begin in Phoenix, Arizona on May 17.

The first leg of the tour was scheduled to conclude on June 26 in Austin, Texas, before resuming for the second leg on July 10 in Orlando, Florida.

The final date was scheduled for August 20 in Vancouver, Canada.

In June 2019, the FDA issued a warning about dangerous levels of asbestos in a JoJo Siwa-branded cosmetics kit, prompting Claire's to recall the product.

She was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.

She was included on Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in September 2020 and on Fast Companys Queer 50 list in 2021.

On April 4, 2022, she was announced as a judge for the seventeenth season of So You Think You Can Dance, along with Matthew Morrison and Stephen "tWitch" Boss.

On January 26, 2024, she was announced to be returning as a judge for the eighteenth season, replacing Nigel Lythgoe, who had earlier announced his withdrawal from the upcoming season.

On September 9, 2022, she was announced as the recipient of the Gamechanger Award from GLSEN for her anti-bullying advocacy efforts.

Siwa subsequently partnered with the American department store J. C. Penney to release a line of accessories, bedroom decor, and a doll made in her likeness, and has released several books aimed at young children.

Siwa appeared as a playable character in the 2020 video game Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix, as well at its 2022 sequel Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway.

Siwa competed on the thirtieth season of Dancing with the Stars, in which she was part of the first same-sex dancing partnership in the show's history.

She and her partner, Jenna Johnson, ultimately placed 2nd.

In January 2021, the board game Jojo's Juice, marketed for children aged 6 and above, was withdrawn from sales by game makers Nickelodeon and Spin Master after a controversy over the game's content, which included questions about nudity and being arrested.

Siwa responded that month, stating that she was not informed about the game's questions, and opined that "my name and my image have been used to promote this board game that has some really inappropriate content … I was really, really, really upset at how gross these questions were".

In 2021, General Mills started producing a breakfast cereal called JoJo Siwa Strawberry Bop, with Siwa prominently depicted on the box.

The cereal contains strawberry-flavored sweetened corn puffs with marshmallows shaped like yellow and white stars, pink bows, and blue hearts.