Hayley Kiyoko’s Girls Like Girls turns a landmark queer pop song into a feature film about first love, self-discovery and being seen. The singer and director has carried the story from a music video to a young adult novel and now the cinema, with an Asian and LGBTQ+ perspective at its heart. Here’s why its journey matters.
Essential Takeaways
- A story with a long life: Girls Like Girls began as a 2015 song and music video before becoming a 2023 young adult novel and a feature film. [4]
- A personal starting point: Kiyoko has described the film as a love letter to her younger self and her longing for a love story she could recognise. [2]
- Representation matters: The film centres queer first love while reflecting Kiyoko’s Asian heritage through its casting and characters. [5]
- A hopeful choice: Rather than making hardship the whole story, the film leans towards queer joy and the possibility of acceptance. [6]
From a pop song to the big screen
A song that once gave listeners a bright, breezy declaration of queer love has grown into a feature film. Girls Like Girls follows Coley, a teenager who falls for another girl, extending the story Kiyoko first introduced through her 2015 single and its music video. [2]
The route to cinema wasn’t instant. Kiyoko spent years developing the idea, with a young adult novel published in 2023 helping the story find another audience before its film adaptation moved forward. That kind of journey feels fitting: some stories need more than one form to reach the people waiting for them. [4]
Why this queer love story feels personal
Kiyoko has said the film reaches back to her own teenage longing and heartbreak. In her account, making the story wasn’t simply about revisiting the past; it was also about imagining the kind of tenderness and recognition she’d wanted to see when she was younger. [2]
That distinction gives Girls Like Girls its emotional centre. Coley’s story may be fictional, but the desire behind it is familiar: to have your feelings taken seriously, and to see a life like yours treated as worthy of the big screen. [5]
Representation is part of the story
The film brings queer romance and Asian identity together, rather than treating either as a side note. Kiyoko has spoken about how rare it was, growing up, to see her own experience reflected in cinema, making visibility a meaningful part of the film’s purpose. [2]
The wider appeal of a summer film slate often comes from stories that offer different kinds of worlds and perspectives. Girls Like Girls adds a coming-of-age romance to that mix, with its own specific cultural and emotional texture. [7]
A hopeful film in a difficult climate
The film doesn’t pretend that queer teenagers never face pressure. But Kiyoko has emphasised the value of showing queer characters in moments of connection and possibility, rather than allowing adversity to define the whole picture. [6]
That choice matters because representation can be more than a mirror of what’s hard. It can also offer a glimpse of acceptance, affection and a future that feels open. For viewers who’ve rarely encountered that on screen, a gentle love story can carry real weight. [2]
What to know before watching
Girls Like Girls has also grown beyond the screen: Macmillan’s edition of the novel gives readers a way to spend more time with the story’s world. If you’re choosing between reading first or seeing the film, the book and film are separate ways into a story that has developed across formats. [4]
For a first watch, expect a coming-of-age romance centred on Coley and Sonya, with self-discovery and queer love at its core. The film’s appeal isn’t only its connection to a popular song; it’s the chance to see that song’s once-simple premise become a fuller story. [3]
Sometimes the most powerful thing a film can offer is the feeling that your story belongs there, too. [5]
Source Reference Map
Story idea inspired by: [1]
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