The lyrics for this song were inspired by the 1994 movie Reality Bites, starring Ethan Hawke. In a 2020 interview with NME, Pete Wentz explains how this film inspired him for “the Pink Seashell”:

“There’s this bit in the movie Reality Bites where Ethan Hawke’s character talks about seeing his dad after he found out he had cancer. They’d talk about life and he gave Ethan’s character a pink seashell to help explain things. He realised the shell is empty and maybe life is pointless. ‘It’s all a random lottery of meaningless tragedy in a series of near escapes’, he says. That’s why he enjoys the little things in life, like eating a burger or smoking a cigarette. I think there’s a whole record from that perspective, taking part in these little pieces of life without the consequence. It’s important to not forget those little granular moments of life. To me, there’s a record in that pink seashell.”