JoJo Siwa is a 16-year-old YouTube and TV sensation who owns a Tesla that's decorated with images of her face, and recently bought a home in Los Angeles for $3.4 million. She has 10.6 million YouTube subscribers, her branded signature hair bows fly off shelves and in April, the teen star filmed an "epic TV special" for Nickelodeon that chronicled the day leading up to her 16th birthday party.
Most recently, Siwa has been singing and dancing her way across the globe with her D.R.E.A.M. tour, which has already brought in tens of millions of dollars and announced 50 new tour dates, beginning in March. Siwa called the latest Australian leg of the tour "some of the longest, most tiring, hardest and most stressful days ever," on Instagram.
But there are some comforts on the road. Siwa shared a video of her backstage setup in Melbourne on YouTube subscribers calling the spread "the most gorgeous crafty I've ever seen in my life" (referring to her craft services spread).
Like many performers, Siwa has a tour rider, which among other things, lists hospitality requests (or sometimes demands), and the snacks Siwa requests in particular seem perfectly suited to a 16 year old-turned-mogul.
Lucky Charms, marshmallows, peanut butter and jelly cupcakes and cookies on Siwa's rider, which comes as no surprise for the "Kid In a Candy Store" singer who has a full candy bar set up at home in her mansion.
"But they're supposed to be like Chips Ahoy cookies," Siwa says in her YouTube video. "These are like fancy your homemade situations, love that."
But there's also a vegetable tray, bread, a "bougie" charcutier board, six plates of "incredible" chicken and two "bougie" Caesar salads, she says in the YouTube video.
JoJo Siwa shows off her craft services catering on tour.
"On my craft rider is Fruit Roll-Ups, Goldfish, spray cheese, bread and peanut butter and jelly, a fruit tray, a vegetable tray with ranch, two Caesar salads, Gatorade, orange juice, diet coke and water," she told E! News in November. "There is always a different kind of chip, cookie and cupcakes. Everything else I don't really care as long as there is good food."
When it comes to her tour, Siwa is heavily involved in the planning process, from the merchandise to the overall cost of the production.
"She thought this was so important, how these decisions were gonna get made, that she called," Debra Rathwell, senior vice president at AEG Live, the entertainment company that produces her live shows, told Rolling Stone. "We had a conference call with JoJo, the designer and the director, Nickelodeon, and ourselves. We talked through each and every one."
In addition to tour, live appearances and YouTube videos, Siwa is the star of the Nickelodeon YouTube cartoon, "JoJo and BowBow," and she has an exclusive licensing deal with Nickelodeon. She sells branded clothes, dolls, makeup and accessories at stores like Target, Payless, Claire's and Walmart.
"We figured out how to take an influencer and turn her into a brand," Pam Kaufman, president of Viacom/Nickelodeon global consumer products, told Viacom in 2018.
In 2018, Siwa sold 40 million of her signature bows, she said on an episode of the "Impaulsive" podcast. However, in 2019 Claire's voluntarily recalled Siwa's makeup kits after the Food and Drug Administration found the "possible presence of trace amounts of asbestos fibers" in the eye shadows.
Still, Siwa has brought in the most consumer-product success from a live-action star in Nickelodeon history, Kaufman told Rolling Stone. "There has never really been someone who has done what I've done," Siwa told Rolling Stone. "I'm live-action. I'm the first real-life license—the first human, who is not playing a character, to be licensed as a brand."
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