JoJo Siwa has quickly become the laughingstock of social media. When she started teasing her new song, Karma, people began to wonder about her switch-up and the change of her targeted audience.

Joelle Joanie Siwa, or JoJo, jumpstarted her career at the age of nine on Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition. She then starred on the reality TV show Dance Moms, where she solidified her fame. In 2016 she released her first song, Boomerang, and became popular among 6-9 year-olds. Throughout the years she always marketed herself to a younger audience with her bows and other catchy songs.

Child Disney stars such as Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus similarly had a “bad girl era” as a direct product of child exploitation and being in the public eye at crucial years in their maturation. 

Her single Karma came as a surprise to many viewers, JoJo even said it herself, “No one has made this dramatic of a change yet,” during a recent interview with Billboard. She did forewarn the internet saying that her newest project has more mature themes and may be disturbing for her former targeted audience to watch.

I will be the first to admit, the song is catchy and will get stuck in your head. However, many people said that the music video was worse than the song itself. It is not like any of her previous productions. Fun and pastel colors turned into dark and almost creepy scenes.

Many people on social media think that the problem is not the song but rather the person singing it. A video surfaced of the same song Karma being sung by a different artist named Brit Smith. JoJo denies stealing the song or even knowing Brit Smith in the first place. Many people on social media feel as though she is less credible and not giving proper credit to the actual songwriter. 

Smith recently released the full version of her song, and it is doing better than JoJo’s. Smith’s version has been climbing much higher on the iTunes chart than Siwa’s version.

JoJo Siwa in just under ten years, went from being the next best child star to a twenty-year-old who is now trying too hard to make it in the music industry all over again. In the past month, she was advertising the switch on TikTok. However, I don’t think that anyone truly expected the scenes in the music video.

Karma has its upsides with catchy lyrics, however, it has many downsides as well with the main one being that it is possibly a stolen song. The music video has suggestive themes that should not be put on display for any child and honestly, some adults.