JoJo Siwa credited Demi Lovato with playing a vital role in her “gay awakening,” all thanks to one of the Grammy nominee’s 2015 music videos.
“Do you remember your dancer? Her name is JoJo Gomez, and you did ‘Cool for the Summer’ together,” the “Dance Moms” alum, 18, told Lovato, 28, on Wednesday’s episode of the “4D with Demi Lovato” podcast.
“I remember seeing that and just being a little too interested,” she confessed.
“Cool for the Summer” wasn’t the first video that caught Siwa’s eye, however. She said that Jenna Dewan’s 2016 performance of Ginuwine’s “Pony” on “Lip Sync Battle” was her “very first gay awakening.”
In turn, Lovato, who came out as non-binary in May, revealed that “Cool for the Summer” was also important for their coming out story.
“I didn’t come out until 2017,” the pop star shared. “But ‘Cool for the Summer’ was, like, 2014, 2015. So, like, that to me, it was my way of saying, ‘I’m not ready to come out, but …'”
Siwa, for her part, came out as pansexual in January, just a few weeks before introducing the world to her girlfriend, Kylie Prew. The YouTuber said she had always known she was a part of the LGBTQ+ community but had wanted to wait until she had a girlfriend before publicly saying anything.
Siwa added that after she began dating Prew, 18, she just wanted to wait until her girlfriend was ready before making their public debut.
“I always knew with me, but I always said I’m not going to do anything with it or be like, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m gay, but I’m not in love with a girl yet. But I’m gay and I know that,'” Siwa said. “I was always just like, ‘I’ll wait until I actually have a girlfriend or I have a girl that I’m in love with and then I’ll do something with it.’ And then that happened.”
Prew and Siwa celebrated their six-month anniversary last week, but the two started as friends after meeting on a cruise ship. The “D.R.E.A.M” star told Lovato the couple shared their feelings for each other over Christmas break when Prew came to visit Siwa and her family in Orlando.
“I knew right once I saw her like, ‘Whoa, she’s really, really pretty. I really like her,'” Siwa remembered. “But I was just thinking like, ‘Oh, like a friend.’ … As we became best friends, I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s that.'”
Siwa often posts cute snaps of the happy couple on her social media. The two recently enjoyed a PDA-filled date to Disney World.