“You First” revolves around the central theme of choosing good over evil within yourself by referencing a metaphor of wild animals fighting over scraps.

Hayley explained in an interview with The Line Of Best Fit

There is a sense of internal tension, a dichotomy of being both hero and villain, across the songwriting on this album perhaps best defined by lyrics in “You First”: “Turns out I’m living in a horror film / Where I’m both the killer and the final girl”. It’s something Williams admits to having experienced in extremes. “You’re somebody’s hero, and they come up to you and tell you about all these things you’ve helped them with, but in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, ‘But I’m an asshole’ about something you did or a mistake you made. Like, this person has no idea, right? But I think that’s just the paradoxical nature of being human. I got mad at kids for a fighting at a Paramore show and then I got mad at myself backstage because I was like, ‘As if I don’t get angry about shit’, you know? Who knows what they’re struggling with, or if the world is a horrific place to live in for them? Maybe they don’t have money for therapy? Maybe they’re going through something I can’t even fathom, and it’s no wonder they got into a fight at the Paramore show.”