JoJo Siwa Grows Up

JoJo Siwa drives a car covered in her own face.

Actually, the child star turned children’s entertainer drives a couple. On a Thursday afternoon in late March, it’s a Tesla Model X wrapped in a patchwork of her blond, ponytail-topped head complete with a signature hair bow. The tire rims are a kaleidoscope of cotton candy colors.

Another car, a Lamborghini, was in the shop getting re-wrapped with a fresh design inspired by “Karma,” the synth-heavy dance track she released on Friday.

Ms. Siwa is currently doing a bit of re-wrapping herself.

“The following content is not made for children and may be disturbing or offensive to some viewers,” Ms. Siwa, who is about a month shy of her 21st birthday, posted on Instagram earlier this year when she began teasing her new single. “It may contain sexual themes, violence, strong language, traumatic scenarios and flashing lights.”

In reality, what “Karma” does contain is Ms. Siwa saying precisely one swear word.

This month, Ms. Siwa stopped by Beaches Club in Los Angeles to promote her new single.Credit…Michelle Groskopf for The New York Times

She eschews another for a more PG-13 modification, “effed.” Her sparkly costumes are tight, vaguely amphibian and skin-baring, though perhaps no more so than those she donned as a child on the reality show “Dance Moms.” In the music video, she dances aggressively on a desert island to a routine choreographed by Richy Jackson, a longtime Lady Gaga collaborator. Black makeup, painted into geometric designs on her face, makes her look like a forgotten member of Kiss. (Gene Simmons, the band’s frontman, approves.) She humps a woman on the sand.

“I was a bad girl, I did some bad things,” Ms. Siwa sings in the opening line of the song.

Not everyone is so sure. “‘I was a bad girl’ YOU WERE SELLING GLITTER BOWS AT WALMART,” reads one comment on Ms. Siwa’s YouTube channel.