Hayley Kiyoko: ‘it took a long time for me to really connect and embrace my Asian heritage’
Hayley Kiyoko sat down for an interview with PEOPLE and opened up about the struggles she faced to embrace her Asian heritage.
The 30-year-old shared, “Growing up biracial — my mom's Japanese Canadian and my dad's Caucasian — it took a long time for me to really connect and embrace my Asian heritage.”
The singer went on to say, “I was never white enough, I was never Asian enough, but I also was never straight enough. For most of my adolescence, my [expletive] kind of took over my struggle with fitting into society, and then as I was able to learn and accept myself, later in life, I started to unpack my culture and my roots.”
The Girls like Girls crooner added, “I just didn't really have the space to do so when I was younger, because I was just extremely [expletive] and I didn't have an outlet or felt like I had a community that I belonged to, and so that really took over most of my youth.”
She further added, “It was really cool to be able to reconnect with my heritage and get to experience that and share that with my mother, which I've never really done. I've been super excited about this opportunity.”
Kiyoko also stated, “It was actually extremely emotional. I'm always emotional about most things that are remotely vulnerable, but it was really incredible. I learned so much from her as well, and I think for her and me, it was a moment that we will remember forever.”
She concluded, “You have your highs and lows, but a lot of the time you don't take time to really get to reconnect with family tradition and the odyssey behind that. That's all I've ever wanted. Especially growing up, all I've ever wanted was to have people I could look up to that look like me, that I could connect to, and so I think it's so incredible to see so many artists getting mainstream support and fix that.”