[1] The song chronicles Fender's life at 17 when his mother, Shirley was afflicted with fibromyalgia and depressed because she could no longer work after 40 years of service as a nurse.

"[10] He told Rolling Stone that it is "a letter to [his] 17 year old self", explaining: "17 is when all the challenges begin: you're not a baby, but you're definitely not an adult, I'm not even sure it'll happen at all for you, but growing up is for fools and the near dead, so stop being so serious all the time".

[11] It also went viral on TikTok, with users utilising the song to "convey their personal tales of abuse and mistreatment".

[13] Georgie Holland and Scott Colothan of Absolute Radio described "Seventeen Going Under" as an "emphatic, soaring guitar song that collates the struggles of unemployed life, but also the daftness of age where you otherwise have little to fear and the world at your feet.

"[14] In Tribune magazine, Alex Niven called the song "a triumphant memento vivere for dark times" and commended Fender for "produc[ing] a towering monument to a decade of social injustice and building youthful radicalism which the political mainstream seems determined to try to whitewash.