Band lead and primary lyricist Shirley Manson called the song a rebuff to classic fairy tales, such as "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty". "It's about encouraging myself and through that encouraging others just to sort of engineer your own life, engineer your own happiness," Manson explained. "I think for a long time I was under the illusion that life was like a storybook. I think particularly when you're a female, you're imbued with... this idea that somebody's gonna come along and fix your life. I came to the realization that actually nobody's gonna fix your life for you, you have to do it yourself."