JoJo Siwa Shares Her Coming-Out Story, Says It’s ‘The Biggest Honour’ To Be Called A Gay Icon

JoJo Siwa tells what it’s like being a “gay icon” in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.

In EW’s cover story, released at the start of Pride Month, Siwa, 18, says how she’s known since she was little that she was “never straight.” However, she insists coming out earlier this year was “so unplanned.”

Siwa, who is now dating Kylie Prew, admits that, before she came out, she wouldn’t say she was straight if people asked.

“But I also was never like, ‘Oh, I’m gay,’” she tells the mag. “And I told myself for a long time… ‘If I have someone to come out with, then I will come out.’”

RELATED: JoJo Siwa On Coming Out As LGBTQ: ‘I Had A Lot To Lose, But I Found Love’

YouTube star and “Dance Moms” alum JoJo Siwa gets candid on coming out journey in new interview.@Zohreen https://t.co/AFbjkk4Tva pic.twitter.com/9iQCgAC9ii

— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 1, 2021

“Being called a gay icon, honestly, I think is the biggest honour,” Siwa gushes. “About a year ago, I started having all these music meetings just for fun, just getting my head where I want to go. And I told the producers, ‘I want to create gay pop, and I want to have a concert for the girls and for the gays.’ Turns out a year later, I am very much so gay.”

Siwa’s announcement comes after she collaborated with the Pride House L.A. collective on a TikTok back in January, with the group lip-syncing to Paramore’s “Ain’t It Fun”. At that point, she and Prew had been dating for almost a month but nobody knew except close family and friends.

“I was like, ‘I think after they post this TikTok, I think it’s going to out me,’” Siwa recalls telling Prew at the time. “And she was like, ‘It for sure is.’ And I was like, ‘Great. Sick.’”

@kentboyd_Now your one of us!! @itsjojosiwa @molleegray @garrettclayton91 @jekajain #pridehousela♬ now ur one of us – Mia Mugavero

After the TikTok, Siwa decided she was “going to have some fun with this” and then shared a video lip-syncing to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”.

@itsjojosiwa♬ Born This Way Lady Gaga – johanna

Despite telling her publicist she wouldn’t post anything else about the situation, Siwa went ahead and shared a photo wearing that “Best Gay Cousin Ever” T-shirt.

RELATED: JoJo Siwa And Girlfriend Kylie Enjoy Date Night At Queen Tribute Concert

My cousin got me a new shirt pic.twitter.com/DuHhgRto7b

— JoJo Siwa!?❤️? (@itsjojosiwa) January 22, 2021

“‘I just did that… Everyone’s going to kill me,’” she remembers thinking at the time. “I was like, ‘But I don’t care. It’ll be fine.’ And it was never scary to me to put out to the world that I was happy or I was in love.

“If everything was to go away because of it, because of me being happy, then it’s not meant for me.”

Siwa, who received numerous messages after coming out from celebs, including Joe Jonas, Kim Kardashian, and Lil Nas X, says she’s “finally the happiest that I’ve ever been.”

Siwa also mentions how she dated a fellow TikToker before Prew, telling the publication: “I had the world convinced. I really did. I think I even had myself convinced, honestly. I gave it a shot and I was like, ‘This isn’t for me.’”

Siwa talks about pushing to get a kissing scene with a man taken out of her upcoming movie, “Bounce”.

“I’m madly in love and I do not want to kiss another human. Especially because it’s a man,” Siwa says, adding that her fans likely won’t separate her as JoJo Siwa from her on-screen character Franny. “That’s what they look at me as, not some character, not some fictional thing. And so it’s going to be a little weird.

“I’m not about it,” she adds. “I’m trying to get it pulled so bad. It’ll happen. It’ll get pulled.”