Table of Contents
Guide
BY JOJO SIWA
Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for
and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4197-2817-4
eISBN 978-1-68335-202-0
: photos copyright CBI Distributing Corp.
:
photos copyright BluBot Studios.
: photo courtesy Matt Yoakum (@mattslayss).
All other photos permission of Jessalynn Siwa.
Text copyright 2017 JoJo Siwa
Jacket and title page illustrations copyright 2017 Amulet Books
Book design by Timothy Shaner / Night and Day Design
Published in 2017 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved.
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195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007
abramsbooks.com
For everyone who
believed in me;
and if youre
reading this,
I believe in you!
Rolo-s for Being
A Siwanator
I GREW UP
IN OMAHA,
NEBRASKA,
where
my mom
owned a dance studio. I had an incredible, supportive family and
all my friends beside me. My childhood was the best timeyet I
always knew what my future was going to be. You see, from the
time I was really little, I wanted to be a pop star. Now Im lucky
enough to be living out my dreams.
In a minute Im going to tell you how it all beganfrom my first
solo at age two, all the way through the amazing things Im doing
right now. But first I want to talk about what it is to be a Siwanator.
Im guessing if you picked up this book, youre probably a Siwanator
already! Or maybe youve seen my hit single, Boomerang, on
YouTube... but youre not totally sure what it means to be a
Siwanator.
Siwanatorz are the backbone of this book. Being a Siwanator
means being confident, positive, and supportive of others. Some-
times it means building a wall around youand Im not talking
JOJOS GUIDE TO THE
Sweet
LIFE
about the kind you make with bricks. Im talking about the imaginary
kind that keeps the haters away. When someone is hating, you just
imagine that wall around you, protecting you. Think, I cant hear
you, I cant see you... what youre saying just doesnt matter!
Then go find the people who love you for who you are, and hang
with them instead. Theyre the ones who really count!
Siwanatorz protect each other. If they see someone
being bullied, they speak up. Maybe not to the bully
herselfbut to a parent or teacher.
And even more important, they are kind to the person who is
being bullied. A little kindness can go a long way... Ive seen it
firsthand. Let me tell you a story from when I was in third grade.
It stuck with me for life, because it was one of the first times I saw
someone being bullied and decided to do something about it.
My whole life, Ive been homeschooled, except for kindergarten
and one quarter in third grade. When I was in third grade, I went
back to school for the last quarter of the year to see what it was
like and to make sure I was on track. (I was! I scored off the charts
on my NESA test and had a lot of fun making new friends; but in
the end I decided I liked being homeschooled better.) The first day
I got to school in the third grade, the other girls came up to me and
pointed out another girl in the class. They said, We dont like her.
Youre not going to hang out with her because we dont.
At first I just kind of went along with it. I didnt know what to doI
was just the new kid. It was a nice school in a nice neighborhood,
and if you didnt have the right clothes or were a little different,
it was harder to fit in. The popular girls were really mean to this
other girl, who Im going to call Lucy. (Thats not her real name.)
That semester, we were learning our multiplication facts, and Lucy
was behind. We learned all the way up through 12and each time
we got a whole set of numbers right, we got to build an ice cream
sundae on a chart on the wall. At the end of the year, there was
going to be an ice cream party where we got real sundaes! So if you
got all your 1s right (1x1, 1x2, 1x3, and on), you got a bowl. Then if
you got all your 2s right (2x1, 2x2, 2x3, and on), you got whipped
cream. It went like that, all the way up to 12, and there were all