Since publicly coming out back in 2021, internet star JoJo Siwa has made a point of being as outspoken as possible for her community — and apparently, some organizations did not appreciate that.
During her appearance on Thursday’s episode of The Viall Files (July 27), Siwa said that amidst the “overwhelming” attention she received after coming out, there were a few corporations that were upset with her decision to speak about her sexuality publicly. “I had a lot of people of corporations [who] told me that I made the wrong choice and that I shouldn’t have come out,” she said. “[They said] that I shouldn’t tell my young demographic that I’m gay.”
Siwa then went on to say that many of those same people then “blackballed” her from working with them. “They kind of shunned me from their corporations in a way,” she said.
While the prospect of being blacklisted by certain companies would be daunting to many, Siwa says she didn’t let it bother her. “I don’t want to work for a company [or] represent something that doesn’t support who I love,” she said. “If somebody has a problem with me telling little kids that it’s okay to be who you are and love who you want to love and do what you want to do, then we don’t need to be friends.”
It wouldn’t be the first time that Siwa locked horns publicly with a major corportation; back in 2021, the star called out Nickelodeon for not allowing her to perform original songs from her movie The J Team while on tour. “These are MY songs, MY voice, MY writing. Does this seem fair???” she wrote at the time.
Check out Siwa’s full interview on The Viall Files in the video above.
This story originally appeared on Billboard
