We all want to be loved. We all want to feel accepted. We all want to feel content. And life is hard.
Hayley Kiyoko
Being young is so hard. You're surrounded by judgment and fear.
My friends call my style 'old man chic.' I wear loafers and stylish sweatpants. I love to stay comfortable, so I definitely funk it up, but I'm always comfortable. I wear lots of hats and feathers, and I kind of have a little obsession with Native American jewelry.
I just tend to date straight girls. That's my problem: I'm a turner.
I've been parading around, leading people, being loud, since forever.
I'm grateful to the LGBTQ community for giving me the courage to write music about who I am and not just about my sexual orientation.
I think it's just important for people to lead by example.
I know who I am and what I want to say and what I'm supposed to sound like.
I like to be a part of shows that are trying to make waves and changes.
My motto is to help people love themselves sooner. I can't teach them how to do that. They have to figure that out on their own - that's their journey.
The music industry is such a different world from the acting world. Everything is really last minute, but I love the challenge, and I love owning my material and being able to put out what I want.
For me, I think 'Jem' fans were expecting a remake of the cartoon, and the movie really is inspired by the cartoon based in a 2015, modern-day setting. It is going to be very different, but it's also going to be very familiar as well.
Everything I do I believe in 100 percent, and I believe it's important.
I just want to make art that connects with people and moves them on an emotional level. Any time I can put out music and place a story behind it and have people watch it and go, 'Wow, I was affected by that,' to me, feels like I've done my job.
I personally feel like people shouldn't have to come out. That, to me, was like a moment for myself where I was coming out to myself with, like, 'Okay, I can be the artist that I want to be, and as long as the music is good, people will accept me. It doesn't matter who I am, what I look like. If the music is good, they will like me. The end.'
For me, every music video is a hurdle. Every time I do a music video, I'm constantly fighting to get my point across. As a gay woman, that's also a big hurdle.
My goal has always been to just be a person who makes great art.
On a very small scale, I kind of understand why the directors that I work with do certain things. I don't consider myself an incredible director. I'm not ready to do movies by any means. But, I feel like I can be a better actress now that I've been on the other side and kind of understand the process and more of the technical aspects of it.
When I approach my music and my music videos, obviously all of the subjects and stories that I tell come from an honest, truthful place and the experiences that I've had.
My journey has really been trying to normalize girls loving girls.
I've always wanted to do a video of me following a girl down the street. Michael Jackson's done it. Omarion's done it. All these male pop artists have followed women down streets in videos - it's kind of the classic thing. And I was like, there is no video of a girl following a girl down the street. I need to do this at some point in my life.
I loved the idea of how all these guys always are stealing other guys' girls and I was like, 'There's no female anthem for a girl stealing another guy's girl,' and that is the coolest thing ever.
I love women, but I also respect them.
In the dating game, the world is difficult because people don't communicate, or they communicate, but then their actions speak louder than words.
That's the whole point of my trying to achieve success in mainstream pop - to have straight people sing to my music that has a 'she' pronoun in it.
My mom choreographed the top Olympians; she's really the queen of ice in her world, so I kind of get my directorial bug from her because she's really good at telling people what to do!
It's tough as an artist to have such a specific vision for your video in mind when you write a song. Reaching out to directors is like going on blind dates and trying to find someone who sees the exact vision behind your music, which can be really difficult.
I really never imagined that I could ever even direct anything, so 'Girls Like Girls' was co-directed.
I just love storytelling. I write music to tell stories. So when I'm done writing a song, I take it and go, 'Okay. How can I interpret these lyrics differently?' I love taking lyrics that were so close to me at a certain point in my life and then revamping them. I always want to take things to the next level.
I've always wanted my lyrics to say something meaningful and, you know, you always want to tell a message with your art. So yes, as I continue to write music, I will write about things that are real and things that I feel aren't written about a lot.
When I'm on set, I'm on set, and I focus and get the work done. Then when I'm done, I kind of have this button that I switch. I'm constantly switching this button and putting on different masks, and that kind of keeps me organized.
My hair has been this chapter thing for me. In 'Jem,' I have blue hair. 'Insidious,' it's pink. In 'CSI,' I have blonde. I love changing my hair. It's just hair and it grows all the time.
I did not want to be the gay artist, and I talked to my manager all the time, like, I don't want to lead with that. I didn't want people to look at me like that's all I am.
Everyone uses art for different reasons: We use it as entertainment. We use it as an escape. We use it as comfort. Everyone uses it for different reasons.
I felt like people weren't going to accept me as a pop artist.
I grew up hip-hop dancing; I've always wanted to create music that I could dance to.
I thought I would be in a band like Arcade Fire or be like Fiona Apple - but pop just made sense to me.
It's wonderful to see parents come together and openly support their LGBTQ kids at my shows.
