originally the song was written by dennis for britney spears, who turned it down due to its subject matter. a few months later, dennis still had not found someone to perform the song and offered it to stevens, whom she had worked with when stevens was a member of s club 7. at the time stevens had just begun work on her debut solo album and thought the song, which did not sound like anything out at the time, would make a good first single. stevens said of the song in an interview, "the writers really got my personality and the direction i want to go in," she said. "the first single is a great example – the first time i heard it i knew it's what i wanted."