Girls Like Girls

Hayley Kiyoko

CARINA DIERINGER

Disney’s “Lemonade Mouth” was my favorite movie growing up. I loved the music, the outfits, and Stella Yamada’s unapologetic rebellious spirit. I discovered that Hayley Kiyoko (of Stella Yamada fame) was gay after realizing that I liked girls at age 12. Finding out that she was like me and proud felt special—like a secret whispered under the covers at a sleepover. Kiyoko’s music taught me that loving girls was not just possible; it was beautiful and sexy.

When Kiyoko announced that her novel “Girls Like Girls,” based on her hit song and music video of the same name from 2015, would be adapted into a movie, I had to see it.

“Girls Like Girls” follows a teenage girl named Coley who moves to a new town after the death of her mother and starts to fall for a popular girl named Sonya. The movie has the vibrant, warm colors and playfully intimate shots typical of Hayley Kiyoko’s directorial work. It’s also chock-full of references to the 2015 music video. Though this is the first time Kiyoko had to work with an entire movie-length script— and it shows. Most of the lines sound like they came straight from a badly written YA romance novel (“Olive juice…”). I’m assuming that this is because they did, but I haven’t read the book, so I can’t confirm that. Where the film falls off in dialogue, it makes up for in the way it embraces not just romantic love but also the process of falling in love with yourself. There is something that feels inherently queer about the journey of self-love and self-acceptance, and Coley embodies these experiences in a way that feels real—not cliche.

Anyway, don’t lesbians deserve a little cheesy YA romance every once in a while too?