In June 2015, two days before gay marriage became federally recognized, Hayley Kiyoko released her song “Girls Like Girls”.
At the time, Kiyoko was 24 years old and had built a fan base from her acting roles in Disney Channel. But she was now performing an explicitly Sapphic song at a time when she had only privately come out to a few people in her life as a lesbian.
Kiyoko said of Ellen DeGeneres’ 1997 appearance, “I grew up seeing Ellen on magazine covers, then her show was canceled and the backlash.” “Yes, I’m gay” time cover. “My examples of how being authentic doesn’t mean being successful in your career. This was one-on-one for me, so it was pretty scary.”
However, in 11 years, Kiyoko has become a queer icon — her fans refer to her as Lesbian Jesus — and she’s expanded “Girls Like Girls” into a multidimensional universe: first, by writing 2023. young-adult novels based on the song video musicwhich became a No. 1 New York Times best seller; And now, by directing and co-writing feature film adaptation.
The film (in theatres) is a dream drama based on Collie (played by Maya Da Costa), a small-town new girl who grapples with her growing feelings for Sonya (Myra Molloy). Neither teen is out, and their coming of age in the 2000s coincides with their sexuality. Zach Braff plays a supporting role as Collie’s father.
“I was inspired to tell this story because I knew it needed to be told, and I knew I was the one to do it,” said Kiyoko, 35. “It felt like my life’s purpose was to make this movie.”
For an interview at the end of May, Kiyoko suggested meeting at Daichan., A small Japanese eatery near her home in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles. Kiyoko comes to the restaurant often, she said, and the owner knows not only Kiyoko’s name, but also about her gluten, garlic and onion intolerances.
“It reminds me of my grandmother’s house,” Kiyoko said of the edamame, fried tofu and salmon sashimi. “Whenever I’m stressed or want home-cooked food, I come here.”
The restaurant is about a half hour east of where Kiyoko grew up, in the Agoura Hills area. There, Kiyoko Fell in love with acting at an early age. Her mother, Sara Kawahara, is a former professional figure skater and choreographer. And his father, Jamie Allcroft, is a comedian and voice actor.
As a child, Kiyoko played drums and dreamed of joining “Stomp” or the Blue Man Group. Then, when she went to an ‘N Sync concert in 2000, she decided, “I want to be a pop star,” she said. “I was like, ‘I want girls to scream.'”
At school she was involved in a variety of leadership activities, but Kiyoko said she had to “learn to show confidence to survive” as she had spent her adolescence hiding her sexuality.
“No one explicitly said, ‘Don’t come out,’ but the world made me feel that way,” she said, her voice coaxing. “I remember being 14 years old and feeling like, ‘I hope I live to be 26.'”
He wrote songs about girls but kept them locked in his room while he auditioned for commercials and performed at open-mic nights on Hollywood Boulevard. Her first break came in her mid-teens, when she was chosen to be part of the short-lived girl group The Stunner. (Tinashe was also a member.)
By his late teens, he had acted Velma In the two made-for-TV Scooby-Doo movies. she also played a recurring character in the Disney Channel series “Wizards of Waverly Place” and had a leading role in the network’s musical film “Lemonade Mouth.”
But acting was just a way for Kiyoko to get closer to becoming a musician, she said. And in both mediums, she struggled to see a way forward that would allow her to be authentic.
To casting directors, she said, “I was never Asian enough, or I was never white enough”. In terms of music, she said, “I’m not seeing half the Japanese lesbian charts on billboards and sold-out arenas.”
So, she said, “Sometimes, you have to take matters into your own hands.”
Development of “Girls like girls” From a self-released song to a novel to a dramatic film is a testament to Kiyoko’s patience, her fiancee Becca Tilly said in a video interview.
“She doesn’t take no for an answer,” said Tilly, who appeared as a contestant on “The Bachelor” before meeting Kiyoko. “She’s like: ‘What’s the worst they can say? “No” five times? They’ll eventually say “yes” on the sixth day.”
Kiyoko said, in 2015, most outlets refused to promote the “Girls Like Girls” music video, which the singer directed with Austin S. Winchell and which featured its female protagonists kissing.
“They used the words ‘risk’ and ‘niche,'” he said. “Why do you call gays risqué? They’re just kissing.”
But soon after the video was released on YouTube, something unexpected happened – views skyrocketed.
“I was doing a show for 15 people at a time in Lansing, Michigan,” Kiyoko said, “and the video got 500,000 views. Then, it was a million, and we basically went over a million every week.”
“Girls Like Girls” resonated with young women and girls who saw themselves in its lyrics, which emphasized the mundanity of “Girls Like Boys” as nothing new. One of them was singer Gigi Pérez (“Sailor Song”), who was 15 at the time and was still struggling with her queerness in a conservative environment.
“It was tremendous for me to experience such direct representation,” Perez, 26, said in a video interview from her hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida.
A few weeks after the song’s release, Kiyoko signed with Atlantic Records, and she has continued to release music. openly sending strange messages.
Kiyoko initially hoped to expand the “Girls Like Girls” video into a feature film, and she collaborated on a script with actress Stephanie Scott, who had starred in the “Girls Like Girls” music video. But the original deal fell through, and for years, Kiyoko struggled to find producers willing to give her a chance as a first-time feature director.
Kiyoko said, “The book was my Hail Mary because the movie wasn’t getting made.” “My entire career has been out of necessity.”
From the beginning, Kiyoko was determined that a film version should hit on “all the classic tropes” that she saw directly in coming-of-age stories and also reflect her own experiences as a closeted teenager.
Yet, in some pitch meetings, the response he received was that “this story doesn’t need to be told because we’ve moved past it,” he said. “We’ve moved beyond acceptance. Everyone is weird.” But Kiyoko does not accept the notion that society has moved beyond the need to see conflicting stories.
“This thing has been told to me about 100 times,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Okay, then list 10 that you’ve seen in theaters.'”
After the success of the novel Focus acquired Film rights for “Girls Like Girls” in 2024. Kiyoko insisted on having a soundtrack to accompany the film – which is rare for a project of its size. Without the budget to license existing tracks, Kiyoko wrote some songs and collaborated with gay artists, including tegan and sarah, snow wife And Perez.
“Hayley is Wonder Woman,” said Da Costa, one of the film’s young stars. “She worked on every aspect of this film, from creating an entire album, to directing, to being the voice of the audiobook that I heard in my ears. She cared so deeply about making this thing feel real and authentic and becoming her vision.”
Kiyoko is fully aware That the box office performance of “Girls Like Girls” may affect the possibility of similar films being made in the future. Americans’ support for LGBTQ rights has declined over the past decade, and Kiyoko said she “feels a lot of pressure to make sure this is successful.”
He said, “Hopefully there’s a queer kid in a red state or someone who has felt alone in their experience, even if they’re not gay, that they’ll feel they’re seen.”
Kiyoko now aims to pursue a career behind the camera, directing films and TV shows and producing soundtracks for them.
She would like to adapt her 2025 novel for the screen, “Where there is room for us,” Which is based on the alternative reality of Victorian England. And she may find a way to give “Girls Like Girls” another iteration: “I would really love to make it a musical,” she said. “That would be a dream.”
As she polished off tuna avocado rolls with brown rice, Kiyoko reflected on what she hoped would be the legacy of “girls like girls.”
“This is not something that will go away; this is who we are,” she said. “I think that’s my goal in life: to normalize my experiences.”
