Who is Hayley Kiyoko?
Hayley Kiyoko, otherwise known as "Lesbian Jesus," is a singer, actor, and director who was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1991.
In 2007, she joined the all-girl pop group The Stunners, which also included Tinashe. In her teen years, she also started her acting career, appearing as Velma Dinkley in two live-action Scooby Doo movies and playing a teen wizard named Stevie in Disney's The Wizards of Waverly Place. In 2011, she starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Lemonade Mouth.
She released her first solo EP, A Belle to Remember, in 2013. Two years later, her second EP, This Side of Paradise, came out and featured her breakout song, "Girls Like Girls".
In 2016, she released the EP Citrine, followed by her debut LP, Expectations, in 2018. In 2020, she released the EP I'm Too Sensitive for This Shit, and in 2022, her second full-length album, Panorama.
Since 2018, she's been in a relationship with former Bachelor contestant Becca Tilley. They announced their engagement in 2025.
Now, the first trailer for Kiyoko's directorial debut film, based on her hit song, music video, and YA novel, "Girls Like Girls," has been released! Here's everything to know about the song's journey to becoming a movie!
'Girls Like Girls' - The Song
Kiyoko wrote "Girls Like Girls" with Owen Thomas and Lily-May Young for her EP This Side of Paradise, and released the track on June 24, 2015. Kiyoko said she was tired of singing vague songs and wanted to write an anthem for other queer women like her.
"I wrote for the first time how I truly feel about girls," she told The Guardian, of writing the song.
"I've just been slowly stepping, stepping, stepping, and now I have this body of work that I never had growing up," she continued. "If you spoke to me at 15, I would have been like: 'Are you kidding me? I would never do that.' Because I was just so uncomfortable with who I was. But I had this idea, and it’s built these building blocks, and I’m like, 'Oh, this is bigger than I thought it was.'"
"I loved the idea of how all these guys always are stealing other guys’ girls and I was like, ‘There’s no female anthem for a girl stealing another guy's girl,' and that is the coolest thing ever,” she told US Weekly.
The song has been certified gold by the RIAA, meaning it sold at least 500,000 units. As of this writing, the song is Kiyoko's most popular on Spotify, with over 148 million streams.
'Girls Like Girls' - The Music Video
Kiyoko co-directed the music video for "Girls Like Girls" with Austin S. Winchell, which was released in August of 2015.
The music video stars Stefanie Scott (who appeared in the movie Jem and the Holograms alongside Kiyoko) as Coley, a teen girl navigating a crush on her female friend Sonya (Kelsey Chow), who has a boyfriend. Coley and Sonya flirt and exchange furtive glances throughout the video, and almost share a kiss at a swimming pool before Sonya's boyfriend assaults them.
With blood on her face, Coley jumps on the boyfriend, punching him until Sonya pulls her off. The two girls then kiss.
The music video has over 161 million views on YouTube.
'Girls Like Girls' - The Book
Kiyoko released a novel adaptation of the "Girls Like Girls" music video in 2023. The young adult novel takes place in the 2000s and follows Coley, an Asian-American teen who moves to a new town to live with her father. While there, she meets the charismatic Sonya, and quickly begins to fall in love with her — despite the fact that Sonya is dating a boy.
Throughout the summer, Coley and Sonya test the limits of their friendship, explore their queerness, and deal with homophobia.
The book was a New York Times Young Adult Hardcover best seller, peaking at number one, and stayed on the list for seven consecutive weeks.
'Girls Like Girls' - The Movie
Now, Kiyoko has directed a film version of the story, which will be released in theaters on June 19 from Focus Features.
The film features a story by Kiyoko and Chloe Okuna, with a screenplay by Kiyoko and Stefanie Scott, who starred in the music video. It stars Maya da Costa as Coley and Myra Molloy as Sonya, along with Maya Hawke's younger brother Levon Hawke and Zach Braff.
According to the official logline, the movie "is a heartfelt coming-of-age story set over the course of one sun-drenched summer, where new-girl-in-town Coley falls in love for the first time while learning to accept herself along the way."
The trailer, set to a dreamy new version of "Girls Like Girls," shows the awkward new girl Coley as she grows closer to local popular girl, Sonya. As the two girls dance for each other, move in close, and try to figure out what they want, Coley also has to deal with the loss of her mother, getting to know her father, and homophobia.
Check out the trailer above!
