Songfacts®:

• Frontman Austin Carlile worked on this song with bassist and co-vocalist Aaron Pauley. Carlile explained to TeamRock: "It's an empowering song of, 'I'm not going to let you change me, I'm not going to let you take away who I am, what makes me real.'"
• When Carlile and Pauley wrote the song, they had the idea of the video treatment being footage of fans holding signs that answered the question, "What makes you feel real?" Carlile said: "People always aren't the best to each other, and it was really important to let our listeners know that it's a struggle that even we go through."
• The band worked with The Marfan Foundation, Living The Dream Foundation and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for the Max Moore-directed video. During an interview with Rolling Stone in which he discussed his daily battle with Marfan syndrome, Carlile also talked about the making of the clip.
  
  "We shot it in Portland, Oregon, during a day off from tour," he said. "We asked fans to submit footage holding up poster boards that explain what makes them feel real. The images that pop up mention everything from music to foster care to activism to the Marfan community to St. Jude's hospital. We even had some fans in the studio while we were recording, just to include them more in the process."
• The song started off as a demo that Aaron Pauley had made one morning. He recalled to Roxy Myzal of HardDrive Radio: "I just had a melody in my head — it started with a little keyboard line."
  
  "Lyrically, when we started kind of developing it, Austin and I, we were talking about just interpersonal relationships and how sometimes certain people try to overtake you — they try to change who you are and they try to imprint themselves on you, and how, depending on the type of person you are, you're more susceptible to that, or not," Pauley continued. "And we wanted to kind of make an anthem, if you will, about not letting people do that, about reminding yourself of the things that you like, the things that make you real."
  
  (Transcribed by Blabbermouth).