When you think of JoJo Siwa, you think of bows.
So it's safe to say people were surprised when, around the time of her 18th birthday on May 19, JoJo shared a video letting her hair down — literally — and ditching her classic bow.
And during a conversation with Instagram head Adam Mosseri earlier this week, JoJo recalled the moment she told her mom, Jessalynn, that she was ready for the change.
"I've worn a bow, obviously, for the last 18 years of my life," JoJo said. "I just had my 18th birthday, and it was right around my birthday that I realized, 'You know, I kinda want to do my hair different today.'"
It turns out the bows are such an integral part of JoJo's life that it was actually harder for her to tell her mom about the decision to let them go than it was to come out to her.
She explained: "My mom actually asked me — because recently, earlier in the year, I came out to the world, and to my family, and essentially to myself too — and so my mom asked me, 'Was it harder to come out to me, or to tell me you wanted to wear your hair different?'"
"I was like, 'It surprisingly was harder to tell you that I wanted to wear my hair different,'" JoJo recalled.
In January of this year, JoJo publicly came out as a member of the LGBTQ community, later revealing she had been encouraged to do so by her girlfriend, Kylie Prew.
"It is true," JoJo confirmed during an interview on the Tonight Show. "I do have the most amazing, wonderful, perfect, most beautiful girlfriend in the whole world."
"I was on FaceTime with [my girlfriend], and we were just talking about all the love that came in, and we were both like, Technically I still haven't confirmed it," JoJo said of the moment she posted a photo wearing a "best gay cousin" shirt. "I was like, I kind of just want to post this picture on my real story. She was super encouraging."
She later clarified in an interview with People that while she was still "figuring out" how she identifies, she prefers the terms "queer" or "pansexual."
Speaking for Instagram's Creator Week on Tuesday, JoJo admitted she never wanted to act as though her public coming-out was a huge deal.
