It’s hard to grow up in the public eye, especially when your brand is made from your whimsical childlike spirit. JoJo Siwa first entered the public eye when she appeared in season two of Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition then later went on to join season four of Dance Moms. On Dance Moms Siwa coined the nickname “JoJo with the BowBow” given to her by Abby Lee Miller because of Siwa’s need to constantly have a bow in her hair. After leaving Dance Moms Siwa signed a contract with Nickelodeon and went on to build her brand around her bows, later collaborating with Claires to release her line of big, over-the-top, hair bows. Her product launch was so undeniably successful that it led to another partnership with Walmart, which led to over one thousand JoJo Siwa-themed products that range from stationary to bikes. But with undoubtable success comes criticism, and JoJo Siwa sure faces a lot of it. Many people find Siwa’s brand very immature and childish for her age. It’s common for little kids to love all things sparkly, rainbow, and Plethoric but at what point should one grow out of it?
Jillian Cowan a Senior at Worthington Kilbourne addresses this by saying “She [JoJo Siwa] is definitely very immature buy she was mostly marketing entertainment towards kids so it was okay. Now she’s a “bad girl” she almost ruined her brand.”
Riley Casta another Senior shared “Before she switched she could’ve been a good role model for kids but I don’t think she can be a good one now.”
Siwa was determined that the best way to rebrand herself was to drop a new promiscuous song titled Karma. Months leading up to the April 5th release of this song Siwa went on podcasts, attended interviews, and turned to TikTok to promote the wild and drastic change that was to come. Her promotions brought a considerably large amount of attention, but not necessarily the best attention. In one interview with Billboard Siwa says “No one has made, in my generation, this extreme of a switch. I am the first of a generation, and it’s very scary.”
Cowan says “It’s not true, have you seen Lady Gaga, there’s been gay pop seen the start of Gay’s. She’s not special she’s just cringy.”
Cesta also said “It’s funny, it’s a complete lie and I just can’t believe that any of her managers let her say that at all. The rebrand was not successful, it’s very awful and the second she took her bow off it all went to hell.”
In another interview, Siwa states that she wrote her newest song Karma all by herself. Although later it came out that this song was originally written for Miley Cyrus by Brit Smith. When Miley Cyrus said she didn’t want the song Brit Smith released it under her name, and posted a music video for it on YouTube. People quickly found out that Jojo Siwa was lying about having anything to do with the songwriting process. Brit Smith’s version of the song Karma is now charting higher than Siwa’s version despite its release being years ago.
Siwa’s new rebranding may not have gotten the best press but she still has brought a lot of attention to her brand. Many are starting to speculate that Siwa only decided to do this big rebranding because of the child endangerment allegations she’s been facing, due to her poor management of the XOMG Pop! group she created. This group appeared on America Got Talent, performed many live shows, and even went on tour. From the outside things seemed perfect, until ex-members Kinley Cummingham and Bella Llerena spoke up about the hostile work environment JoJo Siwa and her mother Jocelyn Siwa enforced. They made the children work excessively long hours, had them continue performing despite being injured. They would even blackmail and threaten to kick the children off the team for being sick or hurt. It wasn’t until the allegations came out that Siwa started to focus on herself and her new look.
Jillian Cowan shares “Her look is honestly horrifying and far worse than it was before. She’s starting to remind me of the girl version of Matty Healy. Her look is silly and I can’t even take it seriously. I would love to believe that it’s a joke but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t. JoJo has a reputation of being over the top and doing too much.”
Despite the criticism, Siwa stated in various interviews that she plans to release more music similar to Karma in the future and will continue to drive the rebrand. She wants to focus on her musical career and hopes that people will soon be just as excited about it as she is.
