Of the many things I anticipated crossing off my 2021 bingo card, being a dedicated JoJo Siwa stan was not one of them. Yet, here I am, 22 years old and spending every Monday night watching Dancing with the Stars just to cheer on the teen sensation as she makes history as the half the show’s first same-sex couple. In addition to this being a truly massive moment for LGBTQ+ representation on television, there was a part of me that was just so happy that younger queer viewers watching this at home had someone to look up — a luxury I didn’t have when I was 12 years old.
During middle school, I was a lot like everyone else: awkward and uncomfortable. However, I was also queer — as evidenced by my repeated re-watching of Bring it On “for the plot” — but at the time, I didn’t know it. Or, maybe I did, but I wasn’t sure exactly what that looked like for someone like me.
You see, in 2011 Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Santana (Naya Rivera) from Glee were the only major representations of queerness on primetime television. In addition to this, Tyler Oakley was the only gay YouTuber that had achieved the same level of stardom as his straight peers. And while all of this LGBTQ+ representation was and is important, Kurt and Santana were still just characters, and Tyler Oakley was ten years older than me — so my ability to relate was limited.
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