The teen pop song alludes to a relationship that a woman desires to correct, not quite understanding what went wrong, as she comes to realize that she was "born to make [her lover] happy".

Before recording her debut album, Spears had originally envisioned it in style of Sheryl Crow’s music, but younger [and] more adult contemporary".

[1] She flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded from May 1998,[2] with producers Max Martin, Denniz Pop and Rami Yacoub, among others.

[13] The song's lyrics are about a relationship that a woman desires to correct, not quite understanding what went wrong, as she comes to realize that "I don't know how to live without your love/I was born to make you happy".

[16] Writing for Pink News, Mayer Nissim described its lyrics as being about "capturing that pain, denial, and self-pitying misery right after things go south".

[13] David Gauntlett, author of Media, gender, and identity: an introduction (2002), noted that, despite wanting her lover next to her in the song, Spears' "fans see her as assertive, strong and confident, and an example that young women can make it on their own".

Kyle Anderson of MTV considered the song's chorus more than "a little bit off-putting," saying the first lines of it "could be a sentiment that a lovelorn 16-year-old can understand, but it also sounds like Spears is in training to be a geisha".

[16] Craig MacInnis of Hamilton Spectator said "["Born to Make You Happy"] verges on the sort of boy-worshipping dreck that even Tiffany would have sniffed at".

[19] Mike Ross of Edmond Sun said, as Spears emotes in the song, "the message behind the music is worse than mere sweet nothings.

[22] Christopher Rosa, from Glamour, deemed it Spears' tenth best song, calling it an "euphoric slice of late nineties bubblegum, featuring some of her fullest vocals and one of her most memorable bridges".

[25] For Alex Macpherson from The Guardian, it's one of the best examples of Spears' "distressing vulnerability" as well as her best song; "a determined erasure of the autonomous self [...] 'Born to Make You Happy' is horrifying as text and irresistible as pop, and the two are inextricable".

[26] While reviewing ...Baby One More Time on its 20th anniversary, Billboard's Chuck Arnold felt that "the old-fashioned sentiment of this song - that a girl is born to please her guy - feels even more antiquated 20 years later.

[28] Mayer Nissim pointed out that "on the surface the lyrics are more than a little limp and pathetic, but [...] the powerful pop backing and unbreaking vocals show that Britney will more than live to fight (and love) another day".

[30] The song shipped over 400,000 copies in the United Kingdom, earning a gold certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in February 2021.

[36] In Germany, the song earned a gold certification by The Federal Association of Music Industry (BMVI),[37] after peaking at number three on the charts.

[38] In France, "Born to Make You Happy" reached number nine,[38] and was certified gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP).

In 2022, former stylist Claudette Lalí held an Instagram live-stream denying the rumours of Spears being pregnant in the video, and that the concept was never thought of.

Spears performed the song for the very first time at her L'Oreal Hair Zone Mall Tour in New York City, USA on July 1, 1998.