Songfacts®:

• This empowerment anthem was inspired by a letter Maren Morris was trying to write to a friend when their relationship was at a low point.
  
  Girl, don't hang your head low
  Don't lose your halo
  Everyone's gonna be okay, baby, girl
  
  Morris explained to ABC News that in the letter she was asking, "Why are we competing against one another? Is it ourselves? Is it this industry? Is it the world?'"
  
  After an hour of trying to compose her thoughts, the singer realized something: "I don't think I am writing this to her. I am writing this to myself."
• Morris wrote the R&B-influenced track with:
  
  Sarah Aarons, who also co-penned Morris' pop smash with Zedd, "The Middle."
  
  Greg Kurstin, the co-writer of hits for the likes of Kelly Clarkson ("What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)" and Adele, ("Hello"). Kurstin also has credit for producing the track.
• It was Sony ATV Amanda Berman-Hill, who suggested that Maren Morris write with Sarah Aarons and Greg Kurstin. Berman-Hill is both Aarons' publisher and Kurstin's publisher and after the success of "The Middle" Morris wanted to write more with Aarons. The singer explained to Billboard that Berman-Hill told her, "Sarah has written a bunch with Greg - you should do a trio and get in a room together and see what happens."
  
  The trio were paired together for a couple days and they came up with "Girl" on the first day.
• Morris told Rolling Stone the track was intended to "buck the trend" regarding the lack of female presence on country radio. "Looking at the country radio chart the last year, more titles had the word 'girls' in them than actual girls on the radio," she said. "I think in my head I wanted to buck the trend a little bit and be like, 'I'm a girl, and I'm going to sing about a girl, and I'm the girl."
• The song's music video shows scenes from the lives of a wide variety of women of different backgrounds and races who are facing challenging situations in life and conquering them together. We see a female boxer, a little girl burying a loved one, a woman who's sadly drinking alone in her kitchen, plus Morris herself.
  
  "One of the hard things about being a girl is having to always answer questions about why it's harder to be a girl," Morris says at the end of the clip.
• The video was directed by Dave Meyers, who has also shot clips for the likes of for Kendrick Lamar, Pink, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande. The "Girl" visual marked the first time Meyers has worked with a Nashville-based artist.
• The bridge was ad-libbed by Morris in the vocal booth after they'd written the chorus.
  
  Girl, don't hang your head low
  Don't lose your halo, oh
  
  She explained to Genius: "I just imagined a crown sitting on a head and if you are down and out and you hang your head low, it's gonna fall off. So just hold your head up high and keep it up there, keep that halo up there."
  
  This section was inspired by Morris' favorite karaoke song, Beyoncé's "Halo."