Brett Cooper — JoJo Siwa’s “Lesbian Era” Is Officially Over | Episode 126

All right, guys. I just feel like this is such a full circle moment for us because we as a society, we have been for the last two years on the roller coaster ride that is Jojo Siwa. Now, some of you guys might not have come on that ride willingly, BUT I DRAGGED YOU along the entire time I made you enjoy it because we have watched this young woman go from teeny bopper Nickelodeon dance mom's child star to a quote unquote gay icon to a R-rated gay pop star to big brother reality star to now being healed and healthy and happy and normal.

Guys, this is the best possible outcome. Cutting to the chase here, Jojo Siwa is in love with a man and it seems like it has completely and utterly changed her life. And a lot of people understandably seem to be very hung up on this sexuality and this change in her life. But what I want to say first and foremost before we get into the politics of all of this, cuz obviously there are political undertones, is that for the first time in a while, like literally years, Jojo Siwa, this individual that all of us, a lot of us grew up watching, you know, she grew up in front of our eyes.

It's the first time that she has seemed healthy and sure of herself. And after this huge and often volatile and magnetic childhood in the spotlight, I think that that is the most important and best thing that we could hope for. Now, before we dive into all of that, make sure that you like this video and subscribe to the Brett Cooper Show channel if you've not already. And of course, if you want to be updated on every single thing we put out, make sure to ring that notification bell.

All right, so a lot has developed since the last time we talked about our friend Jojo Seiwa. And I think the last episode when I mentioned her was probably sometime back in June. She is still dating that man Chris Hughes who she met on Big Brother. But she continues to just get happier and healthier in my opinion. And now that she has stopped trying to be this weird gay sex icon that is cosplaying as a member of KISS, like shoving all of that down our throats, her career is also flourishing, which I know is just making her even more happy.

You know, she's gone back to her dance roots. Literally just days ago, she launched something called like Siwa Studio Live. It's an online dance program where she's teaching people around the world how to dance. She's performing. She's doing like a cruise thing. She's all in on her social media. She just looks fresh and joyful. For the first time in years, I'm not like, "Oh," when I see a photo of her. And that is a huge jump.

Just take a look at this get ready with me Tik Tok. [music] >> Like, guys, she just looks cute. I keeps thinking of like the word fresh, but she does. She looks like joyful and youthful and fresh and innocent, and she's smiling. She doesn't have like insane crap going on. She's not wearing insane half- naked bodysuits with weird eye makeup screaming at us about having her ex-girlfriend on her podcast and dry humping a beach.

I'm sorry to like bring that back into your minds, but that is what we were dealing with just like a year and a half ago. >> Dream guest on my podcast. >> Oh my gosh. I mean, honestly, let's think about one of my exes. Oh, >> I'm just gonna Okay. Okay. Hold on. There we go. You ready? >> Yeah. >> Set. >> Yeah. >> That is a far cry from the girl that we were talking about back in 2024. So much has obviously changed over the last year since breaking up with her partner and meeting her boyfriend Chris on Big Brother.

She has also been leaning into her femininity a lot more, which my friends over at Eve Magazine recently highlighted in a real. Again, just take a look at the transformation. She is literally glowing from the inside out. Like, can we just like re-emphasize a few of these photos, Max? Let's just pull them up on the screen. This one is from a friend's wedding. I think it was in Italy back in the fall and she wore this like ABBA inspired dress.

She said like she felt like she was a member of ABBA. And then this I don't even know what this one is from, but she looks like stunning. She looks stunning in this purple dress. Like I you you could lie to me and say that these were two different people and I would believe you. That is how drastic the transformation has come. And also just like look at how she looks at her boyfriend Chris. Let's just zoom in on that photo.

That is the face of adoration. That is like a doting little fawn out in the forest. Goooo eyes looking at your man. This is a girl in love. All of that alone, her transformation was causing a stir on social media because the shift was so obvious. Somebody commented and said she spent her entire childhood and teen years in front of a camera. I don't blame her for acting out and experimenting with her life when she turned 18.

Isn't that how we all figure out who we want to be as adults? Exactly. She was figuring all of it out, but unfortunately, she had to do it in the spotlight. And again, remember this is where we were just a year and a half ago to jog your memories. The entire shtick was her trying to be as mature and sexual as possible to make people forget that she was a teeny bopper child star. Again, dry humping the sand in music videos, touching herself while she was singing and performing live.

In that same performance, she was on stage literally chugging bottles of fireball. Like the entire thing was chaotic. It was so obviously inauthentic. I remember doing my first comment section episode on it and I remember just laughing because I was like, "This cannot be real. I understand that you are so desperate to break out of this, BUT THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY. There has to be a healthier way." And I am pleased to say that we took a bit of a a roundabout path to get there, but we made it because the shift from that to this is insane.

Anyway, so that is all that has been happening. But this year, just this new year, she's continued to take it up a notch. Seemingly continuing this journey of growing up, actually maturing, not in a fake way, finding herself. She quietly switched over her social media profiles from being Jojo, as we all have known her since god, you know, 2014, whatever it was, whenever she burst on the scene, to her real name, which is Joelle on January 1st.

So, this is the Tik Tok that she posted right before midnight. And the caption reads, "Any plans for 2026?" and she's singing along to one of her old songs. But you can see there Joel Siwa. And then she said, "What a year it is ahead." That caused quite a stir. A lot of people didn't realize that her real name was not Jojo. But this, you know, signified a big shift, a maturity, you know, going back to something that was more simple, a little less flashy and caricaturized, I would say.

But then continuing that, a few days later, she posted AI generated photos of the children that she and Chris could possibly have together. Just take a look at this. We have some of them here. She's just taken photos of them throughout the relationship and she's added in children. And she posted this on Tik Tok saying like, "I have baby fever. I want this so bad." And yes, before you ask, that indeed did set people off because we do not live in a pro-natalist society.

Obviously, as you guys know, the childfree subreddit runs rampant. People hate children. They hate the crotch goblins. So, a lot of people were very set off by this. But what really caused the uproar and the virality this week that inspired me to do this episode was this clip from a recent interview that went live this week. Just watch. Megan Trainer once told me, she said, "You will know you love somebody when you love them so much, you want to duplicate them, and you want to pop a baby out that is made from them."

And I get it. One of the first things that I said to her after I started dating Chris, I was like, I get what you're saying now. Like, I love you so much. I need there to be a mini you. Oh, guys, my heart. I know that we have gone on this JoJo journey together. Jojo, or I should say Joelle, she probably hates me. I remember when I was doing my initial episodes about her, we kept getting copyright strikes because every time we would use, you know, a clip of her music video or her songs, even just in Tik Tok, she'd be like, "Take that down."

It was like an allout war between comment section and Jojo Siwa. But this makes me so happy and it's so genuine. And this is why, guys, like, let's bring it back to Michelle Obama for a moment. Do you remember earlier this year, she was on her podcast and she was like, "God, I'm so grateful that we didn't have a son. I never wanted to have a son because can you imagine having a little Barack Obama?" And she was like sneering the entire time.

And obviously she can write it off and say like, "I was joking. He loves my sarcastic humor." But what she was saying is she did not want to raise a young Barack Obama. She did not want a mini Barack, which is so insane to me. And I've told this story before, but I remember when I first started dating Alex, one of the first things I thought of when I got to know him and I really started caring about him and falling for him was I was like, I want to see little baby versions of you.

you are so special and you are so fun and you make me feel so amazing and I just want to I want to have like little mini Alex's just running around me. And anyway, so obviously because I feel that way and I've talked about Michelle doing the exact opposite, this pulled at my heartstrings. It's so simple. It's biological. This is biological anthropology at work. This is evolution. This is how civilizations were built.

Like, welcome Jojo to being in love with a man. And it seems very simple to me. It seems very common sense. But because it's 2026, it was not that simple to a lot of folks. One person in fact commented, "I'm sorry. How is really loving someone only measured in if you want to have babies made from them? I effing hate when queer girls start dating men and all of a sudden that's the only relationship that counts." Well, to a lot of us, not everybody, but to a lot of us, the most significant measure of love is wanting to dedicate your life to raising a child with somebody, creating a new life, and then dedicating yourself to raising that human to be good and wonderful and constantly being bound to that human being.

That is sacrificial love. That is it is eternal. You can't break that bond. That I think is what Jojo is getting at. That's what Michelle Obama was clearly trying to avoid with Barack Obama. Somebody else commented and said like, "Tell me why I'm being shown videos of Jojo Siwa talking about that she knows the guy she likes is the one if she wants to give him a baby. Plus the comments to Reek of congratulating conversion therapy."

Okay, maybe maybe it's not congratulating conversion therapy. Maybe it's just simply congratulating somebody who is obviously doing well, obviously is in love and happy for the first time in years after we all basically watched a public breakdown. Not as much of a breakdown as other people, but basically a breakdown. Another person said, "Next she's going to find Jesus. This rebrand is textbook with girls for no identities.

Okay, listen V, whatever your name is, we should all find Jesus and you can do that with the Hallow app. Now, I know it feels like Christmas just wrapped up and I'm about to start talking about Easter, but here we are because Lent is coming and honestly, I love this season and in just a few weeks, which is crazy. Those 40 days leading up to Easter begin, which is a time to turn away from what holds us all back from a deeper relationship with God and true peace and real humility.

Lent is not meant to be comfortable. It is about cutting through the noise, dropping what weighs you down, and doing the work to become who God is calling you to be. and Hallow can help you with that. This Ash Wednesday, Hallow is launching Lent Pray 40, The Return. It is a 40-day prayer journey to Easter featuring Jonathan Roomie, Mark Wahlberg, my favorite, Father Mike Schmidt, Sister Miriam James, Chris Pratt, and more.

This prayer challenge is centered on the parable of the prodical son, and it reminds us that we are never too far gone. You will find daily prayer and meditations, Friday fasts and honest conversations, and powerful Sunday homalies. And it all starts on Ash Wednesday, which is February 18th. So, if you are done carrying the weight and you are ready to come home, check out Pray 14. It is waiting for you on the Hallow app.

Get three months free at hollowow.com/cooper. Again, that is hallow.com/cooper to start the journey. And while you're taking care of your heart and your soul, don't forget to take care of your skin as well with my favorite product and obviously I am talking about beef tallow from Alo. And I know it sounds wild, but the results speak for themselves. And apparently a lot of you guys agree because every time I mention Alo tallow or if you guys try it and you get instantly hooked, it is one of those products that everyone just seems to like.

It works for everyone. And I think it's because tallow is literally just rendered beef fat. It is packed with the same fatty acids and nutrients that your skin naturally uses and needs. It absorbs and hydrates and helps your skin stay balanced without all of the unnecessary and toxic ingredients that are stuffed into most synthetic moisturizers that do not even deliver. And also, it is perfect for this dry winter weather.

Throughout this ice storm that we've been having in Tennessee, I have been just slathering it all over my face, my lips. It has been so healing. And this is not just some trend because has been used for ages, for hundreds of years to help our skin naturally. So, really, we are just coming back to tradition. And out of all the brands out there, Amalo is the one that I trust. I've been working with them for ages. They are a small family-owned brand making everything in the USA with grass-fed tallow organic essential oils.

It's clean, it's minimal, it's small batch, and it is effective. So, if you've been on the fence about trying tallow, this is your sign. Go to amalo.com/cooper and use code cooper15 at checkout for a discount. All right, now back to that commenter V, I think her name was. Now, the fact of the matter is you're saying that she's bouncing around that she has no identity. She's just going to go find Jesus next. Well, the fact of the matter is that actually she is now finally finding her identity and she is coming back to herself after years of chasing the empty labels that you people promote that you drove her to.

I would bet that you would not be saying the same thing, that you would not be leaving this type of comment if she was waving the pride flag and bouncing around between sexual orientations. And I know that for a fact because she did that exact same thing. And you all cheered it on for years. So obviously, you don't really care about her finding herself and being happy and figuring out what she truly is attracted to and who she loves.

You just wanted her to fit into your very specific box. You wanted her to be a utility for you. A means to an end is essentially what you're saying here. Now, moving on from that, the question that a lot of folks are grappling with online with this huge societal issue is whether Jojo was ever actually being authentic or whether she was simply a young person trying to figure out her way, figuring out her life in this very heated socopolitical climate and whether that just put pressure on her.

Just listen to this. At the time, she told the Daily Mail that she once felt pressured to label herself as a lesbian, saying, quote, "In a weird way, I think that the pressure came a little bit from inside the LGBT community at times from people I know, partners I've had. You just get put into this world where you feel like because now you've said, "Oh, I'm a lesbian." Then you have to be a lesbian. So, to answer my question about whether there was pressure on her, whether this was authentic, it seems like the latter.

I mean, just like listen to how she described it here. This was her on the Vile Files podcast. Let's roll this clip. when the whole thing in the LGBTQIA community is like sexuality is fluid. Like God, when I came out I came out as pansexual. Then I came out as lesbian. Then I was like, maybe I am pansexual. But then maybe I was like, nah, maybe I am a lesbian. Then I was like, maybe I'm bisexual. Then I was like, you know what?

I think I'm just gay. Don't know what that means. Then I was like, nah, maybe I'm a lesbian. And now I'm like, ah, I think I'm just queer. I think I just am. I think I just exist. I think I'm done having my eyes be so onesided. You know what I mean? And I think I just I can just exist. She is done trying to fit into your boxes. I am not here trying to put words in her mouth. I'm not going to say that, you know, she is now this straight queen because obviously she is still saying that she's queer.

BUT BASICALLY WHAT I GOT from that is her saying enough. I am done trying to do these labels to appease you people and make myself fit into a box. I am done listening to all of that. It is clear that she was bouncing around more than a ball on a pickle ball court. That is how insane it was. So I am sorry. That right there, lovely internet commenter, that is textbook for girls with no identities. Not finding Jesus. not getting a boyfriend, that pingponging back and forth, desperate to try to fit into the LGBTQ community.

That is what we all grew up around. And we were conditioned to believe that that was normal, that that was empowering, that that is how we would find community and find fulfillment. And all of this just especially makes sense for somebody like Jojo. She had a very public, often very turbulent childhood. She was bullied live on TV by adults while she was on Dance Mom. She felt immense pressure from the TV and dance community.

She was the sole income earnner for her entire family as a teenager. Her family's life literally rested on her shoulders because her parents literally started working for her and her business. And she was this cute dancer, this obviously bit more tomboy-ish girl who society was incredibly eager to put into a box. And as she grew up and she wanted to try to find her people and make everybody, you know, the public think of her as an adult, she leaned into that community and those identities, as she tried to find her place in the world.

Take this clip from 2021 on the Ellen Show. Just watch. >> You're 18 years old and you're known as a gay icon. And does that do you take that on or how do you feel about that that label? >> It's it's wild to me I think because I look at people who are called gay icons. You, Lady Gaga, Freddy Mercury, my favorite people. And to be in that category at 18 is just insane. And it's just because of who I am. It feels it feels amazing.

No, what feels amazing is her finding her place. Not the sexuality, but her finding that community. And now I will be the first to say that I used to be obsessed with watching Ellen. I loved Ellen Tube. I loved the clips. But like looking back on this video, and I went and pulled it just for this episode. I hadn't seen it in a while. I watched it and I just felt like fullbody chills and ickiness because it is so gross because you obviously see this young woman, this girl who was in way over her head and who was just desperately wanting approval and she was getting it from Hollywood and the music industry and the dance industry and these huge icons and figures, people that she looked up to in her industry.

So obviously she was going to lean into that because she thought it was the right thing to do. But still being that gay icon, it didn't completely break her out of the child stardom mold that she was known for. So she lashed out. She had the breakdown. She went crazy. She became bad girl Jojo. She became rated R like the craziness that we saw over the last couple of years. And she was like, "This is what we'll do. This is what will make everybody think of me actually as an adult."

Because even though everybody was talking about her sexuality and who she wanted to sleep with, they were still thinking of her as a child star. Now, that whole breakdown, the bad girl thing, it's essentially the same thing that we've seen for every child star, except for maybe Hillary Duff and Miranda Cosgrove. They're the only ones I've seen that have been able to avoid ALL OF THAT. BUT A LOT OF PEOPLE don't see it the way that I do.

They don't see it as just a natural transformation of this girl who's trying to find her way and, you know, muddle through being a public figure and growing up. They actually see it as a betrayal of the LGBTQ community, of lesbianism. They think that now she's becoming a tradife because she's dating a man. And best of all, they see it as lesbop phobia, which might be my new favorite word. It takes a lot to surprise me, but that was a word that I did not know existed until today.

When she first announced or confirmed her relationship with Chris Hughes back in June was on June 1st of all days, and somebody said on the first day of Pride Month. Yeah, how dare somebody celebrate anything other than gay sex in the month of June. Others were a bit more severe. It was not just Spongebob memes. Somebody else said, "Disgusting human being who deserves nothing but contempt for the stunt pulled and virulent lesbophobia and overall queer phobia."

Another person said, "Please shut the f up. Jo wasn't fixed. She was never a lesbian. She just lied for attention." Somebody else said, "This woman doesn't get enough backlash for publicly humiliating the lesbian community by parading how she was gay on TV, then cheating on her girlfriend at home with a man on said show and then becoming trad." What world are we living in, people? Just look at the comments. Lesbobia normalized more than ever.

So, because Jojo Siwa broke up with a girl, started dating a man. Oh my god, the lesbian community is ruined forever. Lesbophobia is taking hold. May maybe, just maybe, she wasn't actually lesbian to begin with, and maybe she fell in love with a man. And that's totally fine. And it actually doesn't concern you at all. Now, I will be fair here and I will say that that moment on Big Brother, the situation with her ex, that was not Jojo's best moment.

And I'm sure that she would also admit that. You know, she had a girlfriend, then she went on Big Brother. She fell in love with a man on live TV while cut off from all communication at home with her girlfriend cuz they weren't allowed to have their phones or social media or anything. That said girlfriend then flew to London for the rap party of the reality TV show and then Jojo broke up with her and started dating the man that she met on Big Brother.

I'm sure that that was a nightmare to unfold for the girl at home just watching your significant other decide that maybe she's not a lesbian, fall in love with somebody, cuddle up with somebody. Like, I'm sure that that was awful. But that also does not change the facts of what has transpired after. And that's really what we're here to talk about. If you want to hear me break down the big brother drama, I have episodes on that from last June.

The point of today's episode is that Jojo, or maybe I should say Joelle, she has transformed. She has transformed and she objectively seems happier and lighter. And I love that. I don't care if you hate me or what I stand for, if I've critiqued you before, whatever it is, I want that for you. And while yes, this is obviously a pattern that we see with child stars, you know, Miley Cyrus having her banger era and then a couple of years later being like her soft girl era with her Malibu album like becoming clean and fresh and all of those things.

It is also, even though that's a pattern, it's also a pattern that we are seeing in mine and Jojo's generation in Jenzi, a general move away from identifying as LGBTQ plus. Back in October, and we talked about this on the show, Professor Eric Hoffman, I believe he's from Canada, he posted about some of these findings in a now viral tweet, and I'll make sure that the episode where I talked about that will be linked below in case you want to get that context, but he was talking through these different studies and reports.

And this is what he found. Non-conforming sexual identity, queer questioning, etc., is in a sharp decline. Gay and lesbian are stable, while heterosexuality has rebounded by about 10 points since 2023. All right. So, what you are looking at on this graph here, you're looking at all of those lines representing homosexuality showing a steady decline on all of these campuses for my generation. Now, he also shared in a follow-up tweet, not only this, but freshmen in 2024 25 were less trans and queer than seniors.

Whereas, it was the reverse when the BTQ identity was surging in 2022, 2023. This suggests that sexual and gender non-conformity will continue to fall. So what he's saying there is that the older genzers, the people who are now seniors were identifying far more significantly as queer, trans, whatever it may be. The younger students, the younger end of Gen Z is simply not. So the younger folks in our cohort, the less millennial of all of us, they are fading away from these identities.

And I don't think that it's because people are, you know, suddenly more straight or less straight, whatever it is, but it's because this was always a trend. It is that simple. And it was a means to feel cool and to feel like you were part of something that was unique and edgy and bigger than yourself. you wanted to feel like you belonged and the LGBTU community and wokeness in general progressivism as an ideology as a religion in a lot of ways.

It offered that to young people. It gave and still continues to give for a lot of people, you know, kids who were lonely and confused and awkward an outlet and a place to go. And it seems kind of wholesome when I say that it's like, "Oh, that's so nice. THEY FOUND COMMUNITY." BUT NO, IT WAS NOT wholesome because it ended up being predatory cuz it's all a lie. spending your teen years bouncing between sexual identities, trying to label yourself based on who you want to sleep with again as a teenager.

That's objectively weird. We should live in a society where we can say that's strange. Why were we so concerned with who Jojo Siwa at 17 years old was wanting to sleep with? In the same vein, taking awkward kids, telling them that they were born in the wrong bodies, that they should undergo permanent medical treatment at age 12 sometimes is predatory. That was wrong. But we did that because oh, they were finding community.

They just wanted to be unique. They wanted to define themselves. No, our society took something that could have just been another generation, another young person's rebellious fat and it was turned into something permanent. It was turned into political fodder that did irreversible damage to countless children. And parents either ignored it because they thought, "Oh, it's just rebellion. Nothing serious will ever come of that.

They'll grow out of it." Or they were bullied into submission. If they did raise concerns and they did say, "Ah, this feels like maybe it's getting a little too serious for being a fad or a trend." And that is how this trend became so sinister and so dangerous. But at the end of the day, it still was a trend. And so now after all of that, it is fading. And people, especially women, are growing out of that moment in time.

People like Jojo Siwa. Now, the last thing that I will say here, if there are any men watching this video, is that this should be a really good sign for you guys. Somebody commented, this was quippy, but I thought I would read it. This girl said, "This is your proof men. If you meet a cute little gay girl, you can in fact fix her." Like guys, it's not just Jojo. It's Demi Lovado and Billy Isish, that singer Fletcher.

all of these women who are once identifying as lesbians or queer and then they had men walt into their lives forcing them to reckon with that attraction that they felt but most interestingly in my opinion forcing them to have to face their fans their queer audience and often apologize for the people that they fell in love with. Like I remember back in June, again, we were talking about this a lot back in June, Pride Month, obviously, but Fletcher, that singer, literally wrote an entire song, maybe even an entire album explaining herself and her guilt to her fans after she had to reveal that the person she was dating was a man.

The entire thing is so crazy the way that this took hold of our world and still holds on to our world. Anyway, so all of that to say, men, do not lose hope yet. The women are changing. Like, I know it is crazy out there. I know that the women might be losing their ever loving minds. I know that they are taking babies to protest and doing insane crap. I know that they are very dramatically drifting away from your values.

But if in one year Jojo Siwa can go from chugging fireball on stage, gyrating publicly, humping on a beach and singing about vaginas to publicly talking and dreaming about having babies with her male boyfriend and looking happy and healed and stunning and beautiful. There is a chance. There is always a chance you hold a lot of power men in those relationships. So wield it well and you might just transform your own Jojo Siwa.