LOS ANGELES — Social media sensation JoJo Siwa was nominated for a Kids’ Choice Award this year and has been a key member of the Nickelodeon family since 2017.
So why wasn’t she invited to the 2022 Kids’ Choice Awards?
On Saturday, Siwa revealed via TikTok that she did not receive a ticket to the Nickelodeon awards show after fans noticed her absence from Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar airport and event venue.
“A lot of you have been asking me why I’m not at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards tonight, and the answer is very simple: I wasn’t invited,” Siwa explained in a short video.
“I’m not sure why. But I just didn’t get an invite.”
Though the 18-year-old recording artist hasn’t personally speculated about why she was excluded from the ceremony, fans have posited some theories — which Siwa has retweeted. Siwa was nominated for favorite social music star at the 2022 Kids’ Choice Awards.
“The only year that @itsjojosiwa didn’t get invited to the kids choice awards is when she comes out and cuts her hair??????” one person wrote in a tweet reposted by Siwa. “Sus @nickelodeon.”
“Obsessed with the teenage girl celebrities who don’t take s— from their network of employment and refuse to be anything but themselves,” read another tweet shared by Siwa. “Being connected to a kids channel shouldn’t mean you have to stop being yourself. @itsjojosiwa and @oliviarodrigo y’all are my hero’s.”
(Teen pop phenom Olivia Rodrigo — who got her start on Disney Channel and now stars in Disney+'s “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” — won the Kids’ Choice Awards for breakout artist and female TV star.)
Nickelodeon did not immediately respond Monday to The Times’ request for comment.
As noted by Siwa’s supporters, the 2022 Kids’ Choice Awards aired on Nickelodeon after the “J Team” star came forward as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in January 2021. She later identified as pansexual in an April 2021 People magazine profile, adding that she tends to refer to herself as “gay because it just kind of covers it or queer because I think the keyword is cool.”
In August, Siwa made history as half of the first same-sex pairing on “Dancing With the Stars.” And just days ago, the “Boomerang” singer traded her signature blond ponytail for a pixie cut.
In recent months, Siwa has used her platform to inspire LGBTQ+ kids by speaking openly about her sexuality in interviews, waving the Pride flag and rocking rainbow costumes on her D.R.E.A.M. concert tour.
“I’ve never gotten this much support from the world,” she told People last year.
“I think this is the first time that I’ve felt so personally happy. ... Performing has always made me super happy. ... I am so proud to be me.”
Uproar over Siwa’s glaring exclusion from this year’s Kids’ Choice Awards comes about a month after “West Side Story” star Rachel Zegler similarly revealed she was not invited to the 2022 Academy Awards — despite playing the female lead in a best picture nominee.
Following a wave of shock and outrage, the film academy eventually invited Zegler to attend the Oscars as a presenter.
On Sunday, Siwa posted an Instagram slideshow modeling her newly chopped hairdo with the caption “Today is a GOOD day (especially compared to yesterday).”
