Songfacts®:

• Lisa Heller started writing songs when she was 13 as an outlet for her anxiety. Here, she embraces those thoughts spinning inside her head.
  
  "I started writing 'red flags' over FaceTime with my longtime cowriter and collaborator Meghan Williams," she told Songfacts. "At first I was inspired to write a sad song after I found out an old friend was telling others she saw red flags in me. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to turn the idea on its head and own those less glamorous parts of myself. I wanted to own my red flags and accept all parts of myself. The whole song flowed out so easily, and then I shared the first verse on TikTok where it started really gaining traction. I knew that this song had something because it was resonating with others. After that we rushed to get it produced, I stayed up till 3 a.m. creating and filming the lyric video, took pictures with my clothes on in the bath tub, and the rest is history."
• "red flags" is the first single from Heller's EP is anyone listening? She first got noticed in 2016 when the video for her song "Hope" got over a million views on YouTube. She moved toward electro-pop in the next few years, but stripped it down for "red flags," which has a prominent piano and focus on the lyrics, not the beat.