She was competing on Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition at nine, placed in the bottom two and eliminated, then got recruited by Abby Lee Miller herself to join the Dance Moms team. Her mother Jessalynn bleached her hair, handcrafted the bows, and drove both of them toward a specific goal: make JoJo the next Hannah Montana. By 16, JoJo Siwa had a $3.5 million mansion in Tarzana with marble floors, a swimming pool, a sports court and, of course, a candy bar in what she called the Fun Room. At 22, she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother UK, finished third, and started dating co-contestant Chris Hughes. JoJo Siwa net worth is estimated at $20 million in 2026, built primarily through one of the most remarkable merchandise operations in children’s entertainment history and sustained across a turbulent transition from bow-wearing Nickelodeon darling to adult pop artist in progress.
Dance Moms, Nickelodeon and the Bow That Made Millions
JoJo Siwa joined Dance Moms in 2015, appearing through seasons 5 and 6 at reportedly $2,000 per episode. The show gave her a national profile, but the deal that made her rich came from what followed. In 2017 she signed with Nickelodeon, and within a year the infrastructure of her fortune was in place.
The bows came first. She reportedly sold 40 million hair bows, though this figure has not been independently verified in a business journal. Celebrity Net Worth The bows became available through Claire’s, Target and Walmart, then expanded into a full merchandise ecosystem: JoJo-branded clothing, dolls, bedroom decor at JCPenney, apparel, accessories, sneakers and a breakfast cereal from General Mills called JoJo Siwa Strawberry Bop. The Nickelodeon deal reportedly generated between $5 and $7 million annually at its peak. Merchandise licensing, the structure most child entertainers participate in, typically pays the celebrity only after production costs and marketing expenses are cleared, which means the gross revenue figure of an estimated $400 million in bow and merchandise sales does not translate directly to personal earnings, but over years of licensing royalties the accumulation is substantial.
In May 2016 she released Boomerang, which became the commercial anchor of her brand. The music video for Boomerang has been viewed over one billion times on YouTube. Wikipedia That is a figure that, at standard AdSense rates over years of continued viewership, generates ongoing passive income. Her 2019 D.R.E.A.M. Tour, initially 52 cities across the US and Canada before expanding to the UK and Australia, reportedly grossed $27 million, her single largest earning event.
Coming Out, Nickelodeon and the Blackball Allegation
In January 2021, JoJo came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community on social media, sharing a photo wearing a T-shirt that read “Best gay cousin ever.” The announcement was met with widespread public support. What followed with her employer was more complicated. In Demi Lovato’s 2024 documentary Child Star, she alleged that a senior Nickelodeon executive called her directly after her coming out and asked what they were going to tell the kids, and then told her she needed to call every retailer selling her merchandise to explain she was “not going crazy.” She said: “I basically got blackballed from the company.” Nickelodeon denied the claims.
Her relationship with Nickelodeon ended in 2021 when she was 18. The timing, almost immediately after her coming out, has been a significant part of her public narrative. She also disclosed in the same documentary period that Dance Moms had left her with a bald spot from the stress of the show. In 2021, she competed on Dancing with the Stars as part of the first same-sex partnership in the show’s history, finishing runner-up with pro partner Jenna Johnson. She appeared as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, competed on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, and launched Siwa’s Dance Pop Revolution on Peacock and Prime Video with her mother, forming the girl group XOMGPOP! through the competition.
The XOMGPOP! chapter became one of the more complicated periods of her career. In early 2024, four members left the group and a Rolling Stone investigation published allegations from former members and those close to the operation about the conditions they experienced. JoJo and her mother denied the accusations. By 2025, the XOMGPOP! online presence had been quietly dismantled: the website renamed to JoJo Siwa Kids, Instagram wiped, TikTok deleted. The Spotify page remains.
The Rebrand, Karma and Celebrity Big Brother
In April 2024, JoJo debuted her post-Nickelodeon image at the iHeartRadio Music Awards wearing a black mesh bodysuit, a fauxhawk and KISS-inspired makeup. She compared the reinvention to Miley Cyrus at the Bangerz era. Gene Simmons said she looked cool. The internet turned it into a meme.
Her debut adult single Karma, released that same month under Columbia Records, generated massive online attention, most of it negative. Critics raised plagiarism allegations linking it to Miley Cyrus and songwriter Brit Smith. The song’s success on TikTok was partly attributed to the viral nature of its dance and partly to people engaging with it as an object of mockery. She called Karma her first breakout adult moment and in an interview with Billboard expressed a desire to start a new genre of music she described as gay pop, a claim that was widely challenged. Saturday Night Live created a sketch satirising the rebrand. Under Columbia Records, she released the EP Guilty Pleasure, which includes songs like Karma and Choose UR Fighter, and heavily leaned into a rock and punk aesthetic after years of pink, bows and rainbows. Capital FM
In April 2025 she entered the Celebrity Big Brother UK house as a contestant. She left in third place. Inside the house, she discussed her identity publicly, moving from identifying as lesbian to describing herself as queer and indicating she identified as non-binary. She also met Chris Hughes, an English television presenter and former Love Island contestant. They went public with their relationship in June 2025. By July 2025 she was reportedly identifying as bisexual. Her boyfriend Chris Hughes commented “Unreal” under her Instagram post of a new Bette Davis Eyes cover, and she revealed that at a live performance she changed the song’s final line from “Bette Davis Eyes” to “Chris Hughes Eyes” as a tribute, with him in the audience and unaware of the change. Sportskeeda
The $20 Million and What Comes Next
The net worth figure has held relatively stable because the merchandise empire, built during the peak Nickelodeon years, continues generating passive royalty income even as active earnings moderate. Her YouTube channel retains over 12 million subscribers, generating ongoing AdSense income from a catalogue that includes one billion-view video. Her home in Tarzana, purchased for $3.5 million at 16, was sold in 2025 for approximately $4.1 million, turning a reasonable property profit.
The financial question around JoJo Siwa in 2026 is whether the adult rebrand generates a second commercial peak or stabilises around the existing merchandise and legacy income. The Karma era produced enormous attention without translating that attention into chart success, streaming income or the kind of brand partnership deals that follow critically credible artistic repositioning. Celebrity Big Brother UK gave her direct access to a British audience that knew her name but had not been consuming her content, and the relationship with Chris Hughes provides ongoing tabloid visibility.
She is 22. The $20 million was built before she turned 18. Whether the next chapter adds significantly to it depends on whether she can convert the ongoing public fascination with her reinvention into music that her new target audience actually buys.
FAQ
What is JoJo Siwa’s net worth? JoJo Siwa’s net worth is estimated at $20 million in 2026, according to Celebrity Net Worth and multiple financial tracking sources. Her wealth was built primarily through merchandise licensing during her Nickelodeon years, the billion-view Boomerang music video, the D.R.E.A.M. Tour, and brand partnerships with Claire’s, Target, Walmart and JCPenney.
How did JoJo Siwa make her money? The majority of her fortune came from merchandise, particularly her signature hair bows sold through Claire’s, Target and Walmart, plus Nickelodeon’s branded licensing deals covering toys, clothing, dolls and bedroom decor. Her D.R.E.A.M. Tour reportedly grossed $27 million. YouTube ad revenue from her billion-view music video catalogue adds ongoing passive income.
What happened with JoJo Siwa and Nickelodeon? JoJo’s relationship with Nickelodeon ended in 2021, shortly after she came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. In Demi Lovato’s 2024 documentary Child Star, she alleged that a Nickelodeon executive told her to call every merchandise retailer and say she was “not going crazy,” and that she was “basically blackballed from the company.” Nickelodeon denied the claims.
Who is JoJo Siwa dating in 2026? JoJo Siwa is dating Chris Hughes, a British television presenter and former Love Island contestant, who she met on Celebrity Big Brother UK in April 2025. The couple went public in June 2025.