Hayley Kiyoko has directed a feature film based on her 2015 breakthrough single "Girls Like Girls," expanding the story first told in the song's music video into a full narrative about a 17-year-old girl named Coley navigating a same-sex crush.
Kiyoko co-wrote and directed the project, which she describes as a "love letter to her 17-year-old self." The film draws on Kiyoko's own teenage experience of pining for a girl who "put me through my own heartbreak and haunted me for a long time," Kiyoko told the Guardian.
The 35-year-old singer became known among fans as "lesbian Jesus" after releasing "Girls Like Girls" in 2015, but she says she did not actually feel confident in her sexuality until after the song's release. Writing about her gay identity was, at the time, the topic she was "the most scared of writing about." The song's refrain, "Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new," emerged from wanting to "manifest feeling confident," according to Kiyoko.
In an interview with the Guardian, Kiyoko called it "radical to release a film called Girls Like Girls in this climate." The film represents a continuation of work Kiyoko began as a recording artist, translating personal experience into public storytelling around LGBTQ+ identity and acceptance.