Nickelodeon wants to set the record straight that it absolutely was not them who responded poorly to JoJo Siwa coming out as gay — not that she said it was.
“We are unaware of what incident or meeting JoJo is referencing, but it certainly did not happen at Nickelodeon,” the company told E! News in a statement on Thursday. “We have valued and supported JoJo since day one of our relationship together and we still do today.”
They went on to emphasize that they’ve curated a PRIDE Capsule Collection with JoJo that will be available in May with a portion of proceeds benefiting GLSEN, an organization dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA+ youth in school.
The pre-emptive denial comes on the heels of JoJo posting a video to her TikTok on Wednesday where she shared what she says happened with a company she worked for after she came out as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community in January 2021.
According to the “Dance Moms” alum [all emphases are hers -ed.], “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’.”
Her written message overlay in the video continued, reading, “I took a second to process what I was just asked, and then… I replied… ‘THE TRUTH'”
“I’ve never seen a man roll his eyes so far in the back of his head,” JoJo’s captions continued. “It was silent so I started talking again… 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 went on to emphasize that since coming 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.”
She captioned her entire share by noting that if that meeting were to happen today she would just play the song that accompanied her TIkTok. While the words were overlayed on the screen, JoJo was dancing and lip-syncing to Meghan Trainor’s “Mother.”
While JoJo did not specify Nickelodeon as the company in question, she has singled out the network for other alleged incidents since coing out. In April 2022, she called them out for not inviting her to the Kids’ Choice Awards despite her being nominated that year.
A little later that year, in September, she claimed that Nickelodeon nixed her intention to use any of her new songs from her latest film project on her then-current D.R.E.A.M. tour.
“These are MY songs, MY voice, MY writing,” JoJo said at the time. “Does this seem fair??? There is no reason that this music should not be included. Working for a company as a real human being treated as only a brand is fun until it’s not.”
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