Hayley Kiyoko - Girls Like Girls

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Hrishikesh Hirway.

Hayley Kiyoko is a singer, songwriter, author, and director from Los Angeles.

She was a child actor on Disney and Nickelodeon, and briefly in a girl group called The Stunners, but then she started her career as a solo artist.

In 2015, she put out the EP This Side of Paradise, and one of the songs on it was Girls Like Girls.

She co-wrote it with Lily Mae Young and Owen Thomas, and it was produced by James Flanagan.

Hayley co-directed the music video for it, and when the song and the video came out, it was an absolute phenomenon.

It became a lesbian anthem.

Rolling Stone named it one of the most inspiring LGBTQ songs of all time.

Hayley's legion of fans gave her the nickname Lesbian Jesus.

In 2023, Hayley adapted the song into a best-selling coming-of-age novel, and in June 2026, she made her feature film directorial debut with the movie adaptation of Girls Like Girls.

So for this episode, Hayley and I talked about how it all started with the making of that song.