Hayley Kiyoko released "Girls Like Girls" as a song in June 2015 and co-directed the music video herself. The actress she cast as Coley was Stefanie Scott.
In 2017, Scott started writing. Not for a new project but for the same characters. She spent years jotting down ideas before Kiyoko formally hired her to co-write the screenplay in 2018.
"She knew my story when I fell in love with this girl," Kiyoko said. "It just made sense to develop the story together very early on."
Kiyoko directed 11 music videos for herself in the years that followed, learning the craft because she couldn't find directors willing to make the queer stories she needed to tell. Principal photography ran for one month in Kelowna, British Columbia, in summer 2024.
Girls Like Girls is in theaters now.
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