first of all, let me clarify that i would never, EVER go to these lengths to debunk an alleged victim’s claims.

the person who initially made the post accusing pete wentz DID NOT EVEN KNOW HIM OR JEANAE; all actual accusations have been from people on the internet on someone else's behalf, and jeanae never came forward saying she was abused or preyed on, so i am in no way speaking over a victim right now.

yes, i am a fan of pete’s. i understand there will be bias by default. i also acknowledge he massively fucked up, and will do my best to not manipulate the truth.

second, let’s throw away the idea that wentz wrote very many of the lyrics for take this to your grave.

the album was mostly written by his bandmate patrick stump. wentz only wrote a handful of lyrics for it & he didn’t take over lyrics until their next album, from under the cork tree, and it should be evident since their writing styles are fundamentally different.

the lyrics are only “violent” because pop punk music at that point was often just about breakups and angst, not to mention stump was an angsty teenager when it was written. they weren’t to the point of pushing boundaries yet.

on another note, gray is a work of fiction based off of his life, not an autobiography. the main character's shitty behavior was meant to be self aware, and it was meant to be a sort of closure to that point in his life where he wasn't really a good person at all. the character Her is also based off of multiple people. her death was not meant to be a fantasy of pete killing anyone, but just to mean that part of his life has come to a close.

next up: even if wentz did write take this to your grave (which he didn’t), it couldn’t be about jeanae because they weren’t even together at the point of release.

at the time, he was dating a girl named morgan.

they were really obnoxiously a couple. they constantly were seen together and posted about each other. even the original cover of take this to your grave was a photo of morgan, seen below

sometime in 2004, the relationship between morgan and pete ended. nothing was ever confirmed, only that it didn’t end on very good terms and both were hurt by it.

he made a few posts that appear to be about an unnamed man he either liked or was seeing around that time.

not very long after, wentz eventually got closer with jeanae white, whom he had met a little while prior.

to clarify; while white knew him when she was younger, they did not date when she was an underage girl. yes, weird, but not pedophilic.

white had a crush on him when they met, but he was in a relationship with morgan at that time. white was also, again, pretty young.

she made livejournal posts about crying or (warning) self harming when wentz wouldn’t reciprocate her interest. she was not in a stable place mentally, and grew attached and obsessed.

she also imitated morgan to get pete’s attention (dyed her hair the same color and got the same piercings). this also caused some people to mistake morgan for jeanae in some pictures of her and pete.

this is not me blaming her at all, just stating what happened.

sometime in late 2004 to summer of 2005, they officially started dating. white’s public arrest record puts her birth in summer of 1987, which would have made her 18 years of age.

people do tend to assume they were together in mid 2004 or earlier because of photos of them together, or white saying at the time of their breakup it had been a quarter of her life, but at that time white was simply further trying to get wentz’s attention by hanging around him all the time and taking photos to make it seem like they were close. there is no evidence of them being a couple before around 2004, especially considering pete and morgan were very much in love.

yeah, it was messed up that he knew her at that age. let me reiterate that this fucking sucked on pete's part too.

if it wasn’t already clear, wentz was obviously reluctant to enter this relationship and only did so after a large amount of pressuring. their relationship was cute to the public, but in reality centered around manipulation and hurt. both hurt each other, and this was a toxic relationship through and through. i acknowledge pete was partially at fault, as he was mentally unstable as well. i’m not denying that this was extremely problematic, but it was not pedophilic.

in 2007, fall out boy’s careers as celebrities took off. wentz met other people, distancing himself from his old life, and this led to his relationship with white coming to an end.

wentz had become decently famous at that time, so when it came to an end, fans went digging for old stuff. some reported or implied that there was evidence white was controlling and would (warning) often threaten suicide. some even reported she was initially dishonest about her age.

the digging also sparked an inside joke on livejournal that he dated her at 15 because she has a young appearance.

when wentz married and had a child with ashlee simpson, white followed a few ashlee hate blogs out of envy, but defended wentz when people made assumptions or accusations about them, leading us to a VERY important source, seen below!

so, at this point it should be clear that wentz never preyed on an underage girl.

i am not trying to imply that this was in any way, shape or form okay, i just don't think it's right to call pete a creep or a pedophile because of it. he obviously is not one.

pete fucked up here. pete has also not had a single scandal since this, when he was undiagnosed and improperly medicated. nothing has happened at all since he got the help he needed. this doesn't mean he gets a free pass, but stop demonizing the mentally ill. he's still growing, as all of us are.

this fandom agrees he is a good person worthy of support while accepting that he did shitty things in the early 2000s when he was mentally unstable.

pushing the pedo rumors also further stigmatizes men of color in the scene.

i will also mention that he quickly cut ties with kenneth harris and l.i.f.t. after their respective scandals

final note: i do not advocate for anyone attacking jeanae white! again, she wants to be left alone. they were both immature and have since grown. i will not deny that jeanae was negatively affected by this. she was hurt, she was way too young, and she was mentally ill as well. leave her alone and let her move on.