This edition of Queer & Now contains spoilers for Girls Like Girls, the movie.
What to know
- Hayley Kiyoko reflects on the unexpected legacy of “Girls Like Girls” more than 10 years after its release.
- The singer and filmmaker explains why casting two Asian leads was central to her vision for the film.
- Kiyoko says representation can change how young Queer people see themselves and emphasizes the need for more stories about women of colour.
- Ahead of the film’s release during Pride, she shares a message of self-love, chosen family and Queer joy.
Hayley Kiyoko is back with another piece of Lesbian magic, this time on the big screen.
The singer-songwriter, actress, and author became a Lesbian icon over a decade ago, with “Girls Like Girls” streaming on the iPods, smartphones, and Spotify accounts of sapphics young and old. The music video quickly became a cultural touchstone, featuring two young, yearning Queer women grappling with an intense connection and what can be interpreted as internalized homophobia. Deeply relatable, passionate, and at times painful, the five-minute video struck a chord with women who love women around the world.
Then in 2023, she released a young adult novel of the same name, giving young Queer women a sapphic love story that was more flushed out than what we got in the original video.
But 10 years later, she still sounds surprised that anyone watched it at all.
“I had no idea,” Kiyoko told Queer & Now. “I didn’t even know if people were going to see it.”
She shared that AOL was the only platform that originally agreed to premiere the music video, which has over 163 million views on YouTube at the time of writing.
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“So many people told me not to post it or even do it.”
As a woman who came of age with that song on my playlists, that’s almost impossible to imagine. The 2015 music video became a defining moment in Queer pop culture, earning Kiyoko the affectionate title of “Lesbian Jesus” and cementing Girls Like Girls as a timeless Queer anthem.
Women of colour like women, too
Now, the story has come full circle with Kiyoko making her directorial debut. Girls Like Girls is a full-length movie, a project the pop star says she had dreamed of making since the original video’s release; the film isn’t just about revisiting a beloved story. It’s about creating the representation she never had growing up.
“I couldn’t buy a ticket to a movie theatre and see myself on the big screen,” she says.
“Representation reminds you that you matter, and that your voice is important, and that how you look, how you present and who you are, you’re not alone.”
The importance of representation shaped the film’s casting from the beginning. Kiyoko intentionally wrote protagonist Coley as half Japanese, prioritizing finding a half-Asian actor for the role throughout the casting process. Eventually, the team behind the film cast two Asian leads, Myra Molloy and Maya Da Costa, after discovering what Kiyoko calls “amazing” chemistry between the stars.
She shared that this is particularly important, because even as we see an increase in Queer representation in pop culture, relationships between women of colour remain underrepresented.
“The only Queer sapphic movies I can think of are all white women,” she shared, explaining that when she was a teenager, seeing a movie with two Asian women falling in love would have fundamentally changed how she saw herself.
“I would have felt so much more love and compassion for myself,” she explained.
A universal love story: Self-love
Kiyoko’s emphasis on self-love is prominent in her work. While Girls Like Girls centres on a Lesbian love story, Kiyoko believes its emotional core is universal: the terrifying vulnerability of asking whether someone loves you back.
Still, she acknowledges that Queer people often carry an extra burden.
“I think society… politically, tells the Queer community that they don’t want us around or that we don’t matter,” she says. “Our voices absolutely matter, and our love is so important.”
It’s also why she’s especially excited that the film arrives during Pride season, creating another opportunity for people to experience Queer joy together.
“I think it’s so important to emphasize Queer joy and be able to create a space to watch a film with our community,” she explained.
The Lesbian icon also shared advice for young Queer people still navigating their own journeys: love yourself harder, seek out joy, surround yourself with chosen family and community, and embrace stories where you can see yourself reflected.
“Life can be challenging and hard,” she says, “and it’s so much easier when you’re able to do it with people that love you and that you love as well.”
After a decade-long journey from song to book to feature film, and an accompanying inspired-by album, Kiyoko says Girls Like Girls feels largely complete.
But her larger mission is far from over. Her dream is simply to keep telling hopeful Queer love stories, and judging by the impact of 10 years of Girls Like Girls, from iPods to bookstores and finally the big screen, there are plenty of people still waiting to see themselves in the stories she will tell.
