“You wanna be friends forever?/I can think of something better,” Hayley Kiyoko sings on “Sleepover,” the first single from her debut album, Expectations. “Sleeping here right next to me/But will you ever mess with me? No.”

When I listened to “Sleepover” for the first time, after months of tuning out Kiyoko-related social media buzz, the song hit me like a ton of bricks.

When I was in high school, I’d completely fallen for my best friend. We went to different schools and had only just gotten our learner’s permits. At the mercy of moms’ work schedules and Orlando’s suburban sprawl, the only time we could really spend together were every-so-often sleepovers.

It was there and then, in the sacred space of the sleepover, that I felt myself aching under the weight of possibility: the opportunity to be alone together, to sleep inches away from each other. What if?

But nothing ever happened. I never tried to break the barrier, never told her how I felt. We grew up, and grew apart – but it’s not like the what-ifs you feel when you’re 15 ever totally disappear. Listening to “Sleepover,” there was my narrative – the narrative of probably every queer girl who’s ever lived – documented, all wrapped up in a perfect pop song.

The YouTube comments under the music video for “Sleepover” are a testament to the nerve that it’s struck for so many – a few scrolls down, and you’ll find countless “relatable”s and recounts of personal experiences much like mine. Kiyoko is willing to be specific, and it has made her a definitive lesbian voice in pop music.

If you’ve never been to local dance night GIRL the Party, you might not yet be familiar with Kiyoko’s solo career – although chances are you’ve seen her before.

Kiyoko grew up in the spotlight, an honest-to-God show business kid: She acted in TV commercials and booked starring roles in Disney Channel and Cartoon Network movies.

Her music industry break came when she was tapped to be a member of bubblegum girl group the Stunners (this isn’t hyperbolic – their first single was quite literally titled “Bubblegum”), but despite the promise of a major label deal and a run of dates supporting Justin Bieber, they disbanded before ever recording an album

By 2013, Kiyoko had decided to focus on her own music. But she was starting from square one – unsigned, and without a manager or producers. Her first solo EP, A Belle to Remember, was unremarkable – perhaps in large part because Kiyoko was still publicly closeted. She sang pronoun-ambiguous love songs, kissed a boy in one early video. It didn’t get very much attention.

And then: in June 2015, Kiyoko released “Girls Like Girls.”

“I was like, no one’s watching my videos. What do I do? I’m just going to make this video because this has been a dream of mine,” she told NPR last March.

The video for the single, a queer girl love story with an often-unseen queer girl happy ending, went viral. Three years later, the video has nearly 90 million views.

It was a turning point, Kiyoko tells me: “That was the first time people were truly recognizing and listening to my music, and what was great about it was that it was honest to who I was and the story that I wanted to tell.”

Since “Girls Like Girls,” Kiyoko’s identity has become explicitly interwoven with her public persona and the work she creates. The songs themselves are addressed to “she” and “her.” The music videos – all directed by Kiyoko – are as much short films as they are pop videos, telling queer girl lived experience stories through reblog-friendly pastel color palettes and gorgeous, careful choreography. And Kiyoko herself has taken on a unique role: Lesbian Pop Star.

She’s proud that her work provides representation: “We all want a community of sorts, and someone that’s similar to you so it validates who you are … I think that’s just part of human nature, wanting that.” The stories of the music videos, she says, are so important because “you can feel it, but to see it is a whole other thing.”

Credit: Photo by Amanda Charchian

Kiyoko has often described an almost synesthetic quality to her creative process, and it’s not hard to hear that on Expectations. The 13 tracks were designed to fit together as a cohesive unit, exploring color palettes and narratives through the creation of lush soundscapes: Think ocean samples, synth-driven overtures and sleepy interludes bleeding into each other. Out of the full-album context, though, individual songs stand their ground as hooky pure-pop singles – primed and ready for radio play.

Kiyoko’s treading largely unmarked territory – much of the press surrounding Expectations seems to forget she’s a musician first and foremost, sidelining discussion of the record’s sparkling synth-pop to focus instead on pinning her as the voice of every gay girl across America.

Much has been made of the fan-appointed nickname “Lesbian Jesus,” for example, but Kiyoko recently told NPR that the title makes her “uncomfortable.” Though she’s done a damn good job embracing it, she doesn’t just want to be a Lesbian Pop Star forever. She wants to be a Pop Star. “Going into the music industry,” she tells me, “I never wanted to have a label. I just wanted to be Hayley Kiyoko, the artist.”

But this isn’t to say she’s ungrateful for the identity which has, in truth, generated so much exposure for her work. “I’ve also learned the importance of identity and the importance of representation and the importance of labeling myself,” she says, “because it only improves the stereotype of these labels.”

“Eventually, I want people to just be like, ‘Oh yeah, Hayley Kiyoko, she’s dope’ – end of discussion – but until then, I don’t have a problem with owning who I am.”

Kiyoko is on the verge of mainstream breakthrough – she played Coachella this year, and is currently on her first-ever headlining solo tour, with sold-out dates in several major cities (Orlando included). And if her hopes prove correct, then ultimately she – and the artists that follow in her footsteps – won’t need to work to carve out space in the mainstream. It will be there, unwavering.

But for now, the sheer act of Kiyoko “owning” who she is has to be enough. And for all the teenagers who can put on “Sleepover” and hear the way they feel come to life, for now, it is.

HAYLEY KIYOKO with Allie X 6 p.m. Saturday, May 12 The Beacham, 46 N. Orange Ave. 407-648-8363 thebeacham.com SOLD OUT

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This article appears in May 9-15, 2018.