The song is the first single from the band's forthcoming and fifth studio album, Time of My Life due out this Spring on Universal Republic.

Frontman Brad Arnold describes "When You're Young" as "almost a mockery of how easy people think it is to be young. Young people always hear, 'This is the greatest time of your life...,' but it's not always that way, y'know?"

The ballad's powerful and melancholy tone is reflected in the chorus, "Trapped inside a place that they won't take you/ They want you to be what they make you/ It's already over and done/ When you're young."