Alexander began writing the song on his own before being joined by Steinberg, a veteran songwriter, and Cunningham, a new singer-songwriter at the time who had just recently moved to the United States from Ireland, to complete it. Although Cunningham always envisioned the song being recorded by JoJo, the songwriters had considered offering "Too Little Too Late" to American girl group The Pussycat Dolls before it was forwarded to Blackground Records upon learning that the record label was recruiting new material for JoJo's then-upcoming sophomore album, two years after it had been written. JoJo decided to record "Too Little Too Late" to express how much she had matured since the release of her self-titled debut album in 2004, having experienced both her relationship and first broken heart since that time, and personally selected the track to be the album's first single.