YouTube mogul and hair-bow-enthusiast, JoJo Siwa, has managed to create a sparkly, neon-colored empire at just 15 years old.
The LA via Oklahoma megastar got her start as a contestant on Dance Moms, and later went on to star on the animated Nickelodeon series The JoJo & BowBow Show Show. With her signature hairstyle, Limited Too-approved wardrobe, and mile-per-minute vlogging style, Siwa is something of a phenomenon among kids.
One of Siwa's most viral videos centers around her "babysitting" North West, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's young daughter. Kim appears, dressed in signature bike shorts and oversized Yeezy-esque top, to drop off North at Siwa's cotton candy fever dream of a mansion. The house is filled with photos of Siwa plastered EVERYWHERE, a nacho machine, and lots of glitter.
JoJo does a lot of her usual scream-shouting ("HI!" "You're So Cute!") before taking Northie to her room, which is decked out with legions of stuffed unicorns and even a slide. She adorns North with a SECOND bow. Then the pair plays hide and seek, and viewers see even more of Siwa's technicolor house. They add about a gallon of glitter to the slime they make together, creating an absolute mess of Siwa's kitchen before they move on to seeing JoJo's convertible. JoJo offers North a "Jojo's Juice" before they have a dance party to JoJo's new single "Bop." And before you know it, Kim is back to pick her princess up.
The collaboration is more like an extended ad for JoJo's brand than it is a vlogged babysitting gig. Although it's ostensibly heartwarming and cute, there's something eerie about watching a 15-year-old megastar who dresses like a 5-year-old hang out with an actual 5-year-old heiress in the making. The video is like if an algorithm came to life: created to yield the highest possible audience engagement, but undeniably calculated and empty. There's a vacant quality to the whole thing, not to mention the fact that it's about 60% shameless product placement for JoJo's various business ventures, and an obvious press release for her upcoming tour in support of the new single.
It's understandable that Siwa has to maintain a family-friendly image to connect with her young fans, and there's nothing wrong with unicorns and sparkles. In an era when most teenage influencers could pass for much older, it's almost refreshing to see a star act what some might call "age appropriate." But is this really age appropriate, or is it a showcase of arrested development and purposeful infantilization for the sake of promoting a brand?
Seeing the inside of JoJo's ridiculous mansion makes the video all the more dystopian. Here is a 15-year-old who's effectively harnessed the capitalist power of social media and YouTube, living in a sequined ivory tower and only getting richer. It's not a question of whether or not she deserves the success and fame (all power to her), but rather, a question of what the JoJo Siwa phenomenon says about the new generation of stars emerging through a different modality of online content and brand sponsorships.
JoJo's videos are sweet, but it's hard to ignore the algorithmic quality of her — and most other major YouTuber's — content. You can almost feel the giant hand pulling strings behind every video. The trope of a young star marketed to astronomical levels is nothing new, but it's certainly taken to new financial levels with the technocracy of YouTube money. Before the onslaught of online content creators, an emerging child star typically became famous through a network, a record label, or some sort of franchise. But YouTube cuts out the middleman, creating a new paradigm for unchecked fame and fortune. There isn't a precedent for this kind of recognition, so there's no way of knowing where JoJo's empire will go from here. And who knows, maybe North West, too, is on her way to becoming the internet's next big star.