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JoJo Siwa was called out by her ex-partner Katie Mills after Siwa posted a TikTok about struggling to find love.
The caption in Siwa’s video is “Me trying to find love…” overlayed on a clip of Siwa dancing around and dodging phrases like “love bombing” and “clout chasing.” The latter appears to be a dig at ex-girlfriend Avery Cyrus, who Siwa seemingly accused of using her “for views and for clout” in a December 2022 video that was uploaded to Siwa’s mom’s Instagram Stories.
In a stitch with Siwa’s TikTok, Mills says, “I’m done being quiet.”
“You hold a lot of power, you and your platform,” Mills continues. “How can you tell someone that you love them and then ghost them the next day and then post all over the internet that we’re clout chasers and love bombers?”
Mills and Siwa were reportedly dating from December 2022 until Siwa posted a TikTok that said she was single on Jan. 1. The breakup is speculated by fans to potentially be caused by Mills having controversial tweets resurface after she was featured on Siwa’s TikTok. Mills wrote a lengthy public apology for her past tweets on Dec. 28.
“You sent me and Avery through hell for months and gave us no explanation why,” Mills says, referring to Cyrus. “Anytime I posted something, I asked for your permission first. And I have the text receipts to prove it, so don’t come at me with saying we were clout chasers.”
Mills went on to suggest that it was Siwa’s idea for the duo to go to Hollywood Boulevard, Disneyland and a Lakers game together.
“You know me and Avery can’t defend ourselves, so stop attacking us,” Mills adds. “Leave us alone.”
Siwa has an enormous audience across social media with more than 11 million Instagram followers, over 45 million TikTok followers and 12 million subscribers on her YouTube channel dedicated to the XOMG POP! girl band she created. She is the 23rd most-followed creator on TikTok and, with her experience being on Dance Moms, has an unusual audience reach to older demographics outside of the Gen Z and millennial age groups too.
Siwa came out officially in 2019. At the time, People wrote, “Never before has someone with such a young fan base identified publicly as LGBTQ.” CNN added, “There’s no precedent. … No star of her caliber, at her age, whose audience is made up of mostly elementary schoolers, has come out so publicly.”
Surely, it was a lot of pressure for Siwa, who was only 17 at the time, and who simultaneously had to continue upholding her upbeat and sparkly public persona. But at the same time, she was immediately placed on a pedestal for her fans, which evolved into the close-knit, rabid fanbase she has currently.
And with that fanbase, there is an unusual dynamic that happens when someone like Siwa breaks up with someone less famous — especially publicly. Suddenly that fanbase can turn against the ex, and TikToks like Siwa’s can be interpreted as permission, if not encouragement, to do so.
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“Someone with no social media or a want for fame is whatcha need girl,” one fan commented on Siwa’s TikTok.
“Girl find one that’s okay not being in the public eye until you want the public to see it,” another added.
In her book Everything I Need I Get From You: How Fangirls Created the Internet, Atlantic reporter Kaitlyn Tiffany argues that online fandoms are an aggressive cultural and political force that cannot be ignored. In an article Tiffany published in May 2022 following the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial, she showed how the Depp fandom turned the public tides against Heard, despite the complicated allegations between the couple. Vice agreed with the sentiment, publishing a story about how it felt like “the entire internet” was on Depp’s side.
Studies have found that the more open a celebrity figure is on social media or in public, the stronger the parasocial bond between them and their fanbase becomes. This is especially evident if the fans can relate to what the celebrity is talking about; in this case, relationships and breakups.
Ultimately, this is what Mills addresses in her TikTok when she reminds Siwa of her “power” and asks her to “knock it off.” It’s hard to remember when Siwa is still a teenager that she needs to understand the magnitude of her influence over her fans and that she can sway them into doing anything on her behalf — whether she specifically asks them to or not.
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More from In The Know:
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JoJo Siwa says she fell in love for the first time — and realized she was gay — during a trip to Disney World
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