JoJo Siwa Says Coming Out as LGBTQ Has Made Her Happier

The YouTube and Nickelodeon megastar JoJo Siwa tells People she’s happier than she ever has by living her truth and sharing it with the world.

She tells People that is “the happiest human alive.” Siwa, who recently shared her LGBTQ status and her love for girlfriend Kylie Prew, 18, says that her life has improved immeasurably since opening up, but even so, she still struggles.

“My struggles deal with being overworked and not getting any sleep,” Siwa says. “Do I ever have breakdowns? Yes, of course I do. I'm a teenager. There are a lot of times where I just will throw my phone down and lay on my bed and look at the ceiling and cry for a second.”

Siwa also says she doesn’t want to label her sexuality. “I still don't know what I am. It's like, I want to figure it out. And I have this joke. Her name is Kylie. And so I say that I'm Ky-sexual,” she says. “But like, I don't know, bisexual, pansexual, queer, lesbian, gay, straight. I always just say gay because it just kind of covers it or queer because I think the keyword is cool.”

“I like queer,” she adds. “Technically I would say that I am pansexual because that's how I have always been my whole life is just like, my human is my human.”

She also acknowledges it was a huge risk, as she has such a young fan base. “I have a lot that could have gone away because of my love life,” Siwa says.

She Googled herself after coming out and was horrified. “I never should have done that. I was thinking that all the comments were going to be nice and supportive, and they weren't,” she says. “A lot of them were, 'I'm never buying your merch again. My daughter's never watching you again.' I couldn't sleep for three days.”

Later, she realized it was going to be OK. “My thing is, I don't want people to watch my videos or buy my merchandise if they aren't going to support not only me, but the LGBTQ community.”