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Hayley Kiyoko’s “Girls Like Girls” video is the most popular lesbian music video of all time. With over 149 million views on YouTube since it was first released in June of 2015, the popularity of the video has been enduring. So enduring, in fact, that Kiyoko has announced plans to write a young adult novel based on the characters in the music video. "Ever since I released the music video for ‘Girls Like Girls,’, it has been a dream of mine to tell the whole story of Coley and Sonya," she said in a statement. 

The success of the video might seem like a given, but it’s worth unpacking. The “Girls Like Girls” music video was by far the biggest moment in Kiyoko’s career, and it allowed her to get to the point in her career where she’s at today, with two studio albums and worldwide tours. It set the standard for contemporary lesbian music videos – something I have argued is a genre in and of itself – and remains a pop cultural touchpoint among sapphic internet users. 

With viral moments like this, it can be hard to pin down the exact reasons for the success of a particular piece of content. In the case of “Girls Like Girls,” the reasons the video is so appealing are easier to come by. Visually, the music video has a number of compelling elements. The visual language is all about softness and light, and the yellow-tinted hue gives it a very warm, Californian tone. Kiyoko is an L.A. native, and the sunny coloring certainly reflects that environment, as well as the tonal milieu of her music as a whole. Even when she addresses darker themes like her struggles with mental health, Kiyoko’s music is primarily hopeful and optimistic, a thematic tenant that is reflected in most of her videos, especially this one.

Thematically, the video explores the trials and tribulations of teenage crushes. “Girls Like Girls” follows Coley (Stephanie Scott), a teenage girl who has a crush on her friend, Sonya (Kelsey Chow). The problem is that Sonya has a boyfriend, and he happens to be a huge asshole. Coley finds herself in all sorts of intimate situations with Sonya – sharing a cigarette, doing each other's makeup, painting each other's nails – and is struggling to contain her feelings for her best friend.

The video takes place in the suburbs, which only adds to the sense of dissonance that Coley is experiencing in regard to her feelings for Sonya. Suburban discontent is a common theme in teen pop culture, and in this case, heteronormativity and homophobia are the central normalizing forces that Coley and Sonya find themselves needing to escape. Longing and the desire for freedom (from a particular situation and from the confines of one’s own mind) are two of the primary emotional tones in the video.

The themes of teenagedom and girlhood are familiar – dance parties and sleepovers and the like – but Kiyoko overlays these experiences with the lens of sapphic desire. While the intimate moments that Coley and Sonya share might seem archetypical of a so-called “universal” teen girl experience, the video suggests that these moments have a different meaning for Coley (and presumably Sonya as well). The video explores the struggle to reconcile one’s inner feelings with their behavior and the circumstances they find themselves in. Though Kiyoko worked to make the video visually and narratively familiar to all viewers, this issue is especially prescient for sapphic viewers who might have had similar experiences.

Despite the sunny look of the video, it takes a surprisingly dark turn in the third act. Coley and Sonya are sharing a heated moment by the pool while Sonya’s boyfriend is dozing off nearby. Just as Coley and Sonya are about to kiss, Sonya’s boyfriend grabs Coley’s hair and yanks her backward, smashing her head on a rock in the process. Sonya’s boyfriend proceeds to berate Sonya and scream in her face until Coley comes to and attacks him, punching him in the face repeatably until Sonya pulls her away. Coley and Sonya finally share their long-awaited kiss, even though Coley has a split lip and blood on her face by this point.

The video ends where it begins, with Coley riding her bike down the street with cuts on her face. Only this time, we know why she’s smiling – because she finally got the girl. Though the climax of the video is almost jarringly violent, the overall narrative tells the story of a character who succeeds in overcoming obstacles, both internally and externally. This optimistic ending echoes the themes of Kiyoko’s music – which often relate to self-confidence and empowerment – and the hopeful message has endeared sapphic fans to the video over the years. 

The narrative of the video also reflects the lyrics of the song itself, which are fairly explicit in their stance on queer empowerment. Kiyoko told US Magazine that she wanted to reverse the typical story of a guy stealing another guy’s girl, creating a sapphic anthem instead. “I wanted the song to be the inner monologue that Coley has where she wishes she was that confident, and those are the thoughts she had in her mind,” Kiyoko explained. It’s true that the lyrics of the song are much cockier than Coley actually is in the video, something that certainly adds to the feeling of aspiration that Coley – who is a conduit for the audience – is presumably feeling. 

The first lyric in the song reads: “Stealing kisses from your missus / Does it make you freak out?” At this point in the video, Coley has not yet acted on her feelings for Sonya and is stuck watching Sonya with a longing look on her face. (This notion of longing is present in almost every example of queer media we have.) But the lyric is actually a piece of foreshadowing, as the video ends with Coley finally kissing Sonya (and her boyfriend freaking out). The narrative is one of self-actualization, something that’s echoed in the repeated line “I'm real and I don't feel like boys.” By finally acting on her desires, Coley becomes who she was meant to be and proves that she is indeed “real.”

Considering the empowerment-minded nature of the video and song, it’s no surprise that it became such a hit, especially among younger fans looking for inspiration and affirmation. But “Girls Like Girls” doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and in fact, is part of a larger canon of lesbian music videos. Music videos are an important aspect of pop music in general, but there seems to be an extra-important connection between sapphic pop stars and music videos. Fletcher’s first big break was her music video for “Wasted Youth,” which stars now ex-girlfriend Shannon Beveridge and follows the two women having a flirty night out on the town. Lesbian singer Zolita is primarily known for her music videos (perhaps more so than the music itself), and that seems to be how she’s garnered much of her fandom. 

When it comes to sapphic pop music, the videos are arguably just as important as the songs. The giffable, shareable nature of these images means that they become a part of the larger lesbian pop culture canon in a way a non-visual song might not. Kiyoko’s video (and others like it) can be viewed alongside other sapphic content, things like video clips of sapphic moments from films and tv shows that populate YouTube and tend to be suggested by the algorithm for sapphic users. 

We live in a culture that prioritizes images above all else, so it tracks that a lesbian video would gain more traction than an unaccompanied lesbian song. These videos align with the desire for “representation” on the part of viewers and listeners, highlighting the emotional power of seeing images of queerness. A song can satiate this desire for representation, but videos can be far more explicit. “Girls Like Girls” is an early example of success in this arena because of the video’s compelling visual elements and the desire on behalf of fans to see themselves – or at least their ideal selves – in pop music. The next question is whether Kiyoko will be able to conquer the YA fiction world in the same way that she conquered music videos.