By the end of her Arena Tour 2003–2004, Hamasaki had grown unsatisfied with her position in Avex: she felt that the company was treating her as a product instead of a person.

[2] Along with her dissatisfaction over her last two studio albums (which she thought had been rushed), this period of reassessment led her to begin work on My Story ahead of schedule.

In contrast with her previous albums, My Story had no set theme, nor did Hamasaki attempt to write "something good" or even "something that would give people hope"; rather, she simply wrote freely and honestly.

She approached the composition of the music with the same freedom as the lyrics, with the album's notable rock overtones expressing her preference for that genre.

[5] For the cover artwork, the sleeve was shot by Takashi Miezaki, art design was handled by Tomokazu Suzuki and was officially directed by Shinichi Hara.