After fighting to enter her film director era, Hayley Kiyoko isn’t done calling the shots

T here are passion projects, and then there’s Hayley Kiyoko ‘s feature directorial debut, Girls Like Girls .

“It’s basically been an eleven-year journey of hardship to convince the world that our stories matter,” says the musician-turned-director, whose fans have long called her ‘ Lesbian Jesus ‘.

Kiyoko’s sweetly nostalgic, sun-dappled coming-of-age drama tracks the burgeoning romance between grieving teenager Coley (Maya da Costa) and sexually conflicted Sonya (Myra Molloy).

Coley’s mother has recently passed away, so she’s had to move to Oregon to live with her estranged father ( Scrubs icon Zach Braff).

In a new and somewhat sleepy rural town, friendly and confident Sonya is a welcome solace.

Girls Like Girls , which opened in UK cinemas last week (October 2), is especially notable for its authentic and nuanced queer representation.

While Coley isn’t fazed by her feelings, Sonya seems frightened by her evolving sexuality and is stuck in a toxic situationship with cocky Trenton (Levon Hawke).

If the story feels warm and well rounded – it’s set in 2006, so there’s lots of flirty banter on AIM Messenger – that’s because it’s had time to bake.

Girls Like Girls is – deep breath – a feature film based on a novel based on the music video for Kiyoko’s beloved electropop single ‘Girls Like Girls’, which features the casually empowering hook: “Girls like girls, like boys do, nothing new.” “The inception of ‘oh my gosh, this could be a feature film’ was actually the fans,” Kiyoko says today.

We’re sitting in a meeting room at a trendy London hotel, where the 35-year-old multi-hyphenate looks cool and camera-ready in an oversize jacket.

She speaks with the calm, articulate conviction of someone who’s used to doing interviews – Kiyoko released her debut EP ‘A Belle To Remember’ in 2013, and was in a girlband called The Stunners before that.

But at this point, having spent 11 years trying to get Girls Like Girls made, she’s also used to delivering a sales pitch.

“When we released the music video in 2015, I kept seeing screenshots on Tumblr of people being like, ‘What is this film?'” she recalls.

“And I was like, ‘Well, obviously it’s not a film, but I’ve never seen a movie like this before.’ And that kind of planted a seed – like, I love directing, but how does one become a director?'” Back in 2015, Kiyoko co-directed the ‘Girls Like Girls’ video with cinematographer Austin S.