It’s crazy who you run into at the supermarket.
Malia Moetaua, 13, happened to pop into Queenstown’s New World on Monday and while perusing the cereal aisle, thought she saw a familiar face.
Doing a double-take, she followed the young woman in question for a second — ‘‘but not like stalking’’ — before approaching to ask if she was ‘‘Jojo’’.
Malia’s suspicion was on the money, with Jojo Siwa, 20, having a quick chat with the Wakatipu High student, before posing for a selfie.
Siwa, from the United States, started her reality TV journey in Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, produced by Abby Lee Miller, before going on to star in Miller’s other reality TV show, Dance Moms.
Subsequently, she started an accessories line — beginning with ‘Jojo Bows’, which took the world by storm — and is now known as a dancer, singer and actress.
Worth about $20 million, Siwa was named in Time magazine’s annual list of the most 100 influential people in the world in 2020, in Fast Company’s Queer List in ’21 and was last April announced as a judge for the 17th season of So You Think You Can Dance.
Last September she received the Gamechanger Award, from United States education organisation GLSEN, for her anti-bullying efforts.
A post on Instagram showed Siwa at Queenstown Airport a few days ago.
She’s understood to be in New Zealand for a total of 27 days.
Leading up to her arrival, Siwa’s been sharing updates on social media depicting some hectic physical training, including indoor skydiving.
Following her last ‘‘garage training’’ she posted she was leaving to work on something she’s been training ‘‘SOOOO hard for’’.
It begs the question, is she one of the celebs competing in a big-budget spin-off series of British TV’s SAS: Who Dares Wins?
Mountain Scene last week revealed shooting for the series, in which American and then British celebrities will be subjected to SAS’s brutal, quasi-military selection process, is expected to start tomorrow.
Filming’s believed to be planned around Moke Lake and nearby Ben Lomond Station.
