Songfacts®:

• This introspective jam was written by Charlie Puth with Jacob Kasher (Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad" Maroon 5's "Sugar"). The pair also collaborated on the VoiceNotes hit singles "Attention" and "How Long."
• Puth reminds listeners during this autobiographical track, that despite his fame, he still faces the same anxieties and insecurities as everybody else.
  
  Maybe I'ma get a little anxious
  Maybe I'ma get a little shy
  'Cause everybody's trying to be famous
  And I'm just trying to find a place to hide
  
  Puth said: "The Way I Am is a very important song to me, and I hope you not only enjoy it, but realize when you listen to it that you and I aren't that different. Everyone in this world goes through the same things, thinks the same thoughts, but experiences them in one of a kind ways."
• This is the most personal song on VoiceNotes. Puth told Entertainment Weekly:
  
  "There's a song called 'The Way I Am,' which is the first song that I completely wrote about me: my insecurities, anxieties, how I've reacted to fame - which seemed to hit me overnight - how I really am in person versus how I'm perceived. That's the most personal song.
  
  What's so funny is that it's meant to be a fun song, but I was almost crying while writing it because it was so overwhelming. When it comes out, the world will know more about me, which is scary! Everyone thinks that because I'm famous and successful that nothing can go wrong. I'm just like everybody else. It's about embracing individuality, and it's showing that I'm not that different from the listener."
• Charlie Puth explained to Genius how the song delves into his self-realizations about his life as a celebrity.
  "I was known for who I was dating more than my music. People were forgetting that I was actually a singer. And that was not good and multiple people told me that wasn't good," he said. "I worked too hard to have that reputation. So I just like a slight steer to the left and brought it back to the music. I honestly feel better mentally than I ever have in my life."
• Charlie Puth writes songs by having conversations with himself in his head. This track came from an internal back-and-forth exchange with himself as he was walking on the beach. He said: "I just wrote the entire song in my head. And then it's a matter of extracting what's in my head, and putting it into Pro Tools."