JoJo Siwa has opened up about the reaction Nickelodeon allegedly had to her coming out.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 21-year-old got candid about some of her life experiences while participating in Demi Lovato's directional debut documentary Child Star.
Lovato stated that she was interested in a new perspective from Gen Z child stars after admitting that during her time on TV, there were a lot of boundaries that were pushed.
Siwa, who is a "self-proclaimed Lovato superfan" was eager to get involved, so after a chat with the 'Heart Attack' singer, she spilled all the tea about Nickelodeon's reaction to her coming out.
After the star came out as queer on social media in 2021 she says she received a call from Brian Robbins - the president of the network - who was apparently not impressed with Siwa's brave declaration.
“What are we going to tell the kids?” she recalled him asking, to which she, at 17, responded: “That I’m happy?”
His response, per Siwa: “Well, you need to have a call with every retailer [that sells JoJo Siwa merch] and tell them that you’re not going crazy."
So that's exactly what she did but even then, it didn't mend her relationship with the platform.
"I basically got blackballed from the company," she added.
The star previously opened up about the story but with slightly fewer details than her interview with THR.
Taking to TikTok to share a video, Siwa said that the president of a company had had a distasteful response when she revealed she was going to come out.
Dancing and lipsyncing to Meghan Trainor's song 'Mother', she wrote on the clip in overlay text: "Story time: January 2021, I come out to the world. The company I work for told me they needed to have a meeting w/ me ASAP.
"During this meeting, the PRESIDENT of the company negatively asked me 'What are you gonna tell your young demographic?'" she continued before adding: "I took a second to process what I was just asked, and then... I replied... 'THE TRUTH.'"
The former Dance Mons star went on to state that the president just rolled his eyes "so far in the back of his head."
"...I said 'I'm not gonna hide who I am and who I love to anyone, ESPECIALLY to the next generation.' He didn't like that very much," she said. "However, since I came out SO many adults say to me, 'I wish I had someone like you when I was younger.' Which reminds me every time that I did the right thing and to never let ANYONE change who you are."
Have a look at the full clip below:In the caption, the 'Karma' singer added: "If that meeting was today I would literally just press play on this song."
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Siwa has also previously stated that she was snubbed by Nickelodeon for not inviting her to the 2022 Kids’ Choice Awards, even though her songs were nominated and used during the ceremony.
“A lot of you have been asking me why I’m not at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards tonight, and the answer is very simple - I wasn’t invited,” she posted on Instagram at the time.
