JoJo Siwa Says Her Girlfriend Helped Encourage Her to Come Out

YouTube personality Jojo Siwa revealed last month that she's a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and she's crediting her girlfriend with helping her come out.

The 17-year-old, who is best known for her YouTube channel and her appearances on two seasons of Dance Moms, revealed in an interview with Jimmy Fallon that she's been dating someone. She said she could have outed herself by posting a TikTok with members of the Pride House, which helped push her decision. "It's not something I'm ashamed of," she said. "I just haven't shown the internet yet."

While she didn't identify her girlfriend, Siwa said that she helped encourage her to open up about her sexuality and told her to post the "Best Gay Cousin Ever" t-shirt that garnered her praise and support. She was "super encouraging," she added, even though coming out is a "very scary thing."

"Of course not everybody in the world is going to accept it right now, but there are so many people that are going to accept it right now," she continued. "And like I say, even if there's a million people that don't accept it, there's a hundred million that do. ... But also, I don't want it to be such a thing." Siwa admitted that initially she wanted to be quite casual about it, and that the photo was posted while she was on the phone with her girlfriend.

"I was like, I kind of just want to post this picture on my real story. She was super encouraging," Siwa explained. "The funny thing is 10 minutes before I posted that, my publicist was like, 'Are you going to confirm it?' And I was like, 'No, I'm not going to confirm it yet.' Ten minutes later, I post that picture. ... I'm just so happy, because now I get to share what makes me the happiest with the world."

Watch the full interview above.