JoJo Siwa has never made this extreme of a switch. 

After all,James Caldwell the Dance Moms alum recently graced the cover of LadyGunn, an independent LGBTQ+ publication, and it proves she is not messing around when it comes to shedding her child star persona. 

In the photos, the 21-year-old poses in gold sparkly armor that depicts a fake six pack with a matching gold jockstrap by Sparkyle Studio. Other photos see the “Karma” singer posing in nothing but an oversized jacket and white Calvin Klein underwear. 

Alongside the photos, JoJo opened up on solidifying her new mature image, and the polarizing opinions on her that have come with it. 

“I learned at a very young age that in the public eye, any attention is attention—whether it be good attention or just attention,” she explained to LadyGunn in the profile published Sept. 23. “I just signed with new management, and they’re great, amazing people. They were like, ‘Alright, we got to get people to rally around you and really start to like you.’ And I was like, oh no, that’s not the point.”

Indeed, JoJo—who starred in Dance Moms alongside Maddie Ziegler, Mackenzie Ziegler, Nia Sioux, Chloe Lukasiak, Kendall Vertes and Kalani Hilliker—knows how to make the criticism work in her favor. 

“My favorite thing to do on this earth is to entertain and to make people smile and laugh, whether or not they are laughing with me or laughing at me,” she explained. “Obviously, no one likes being hated, but I enjoy being entertaining, and that is how people are entertained.”

And JoJo even admitted that her latest LadyGunn cover shoot is included in her endless endeavor to entertain. 

“We can’t just do a cool photo shoot and hope for the best,” she emphasized. “It has to be like, ‘what the f--k is she wearing now?’ You know what I mean? It has to be the next Halloween costume.”

Naturally, JoJo knows her audience—as her photoshoot has already attracted lots of attention online. 

One comment on JoJo’s post about the shoot quotes dance coach Abby Lee Miller—and even earned a like from the Dance Moms alum herself, which read, “JOJO HAVE U LEARNED NOTHING?!?”

Meanwhile another noted that the former child star may be getting more hate than she deserves. 

“If this was gaga,” the user wrote, referencing Lady Gaga, “y’all would eat this up.”

Of course, not everyone is against JoJo’s new aesthetic. As another comment reads, “This is sooo camp I’m loving it.”

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