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308 Mizuko Itocreative jobs that young people are being prepared for in digital-productionprograms and through middle-class high-tech cultivation in the home arelargely reserved for credentialed adults. This is in line with broader indicatorsthat show that employment in skilled labor is generally unavailablefor children and youth (Mizen, Pole, and Bolton 2001). Although our studyincluded many youth with high degrees of technology expertise, we sawonly three cases in which they were actually employed in jobs that madeuse of their technology skills during their teenage years. Technology wasmore commonly where they spent money; many teens in our study didengage in part-time work, often with the goal of funding their new mediahabits. The adults in our study who did have new media jobs did not havethese jobs in their teenage years; as teens new media was a domain ofhobbies and not salaried work.Our focus for this section follows from this observed reality. We do notdelve into the jobs that teens have or the domestic labor that they performin the home, since this work has at best a tangential relationship to newmedia practices. It is beyond the scope of this effort to do justice to thecomplex realities of young people’s economic lives. The issues surroundinghow young people gain and spend money, particularly on media and communications,is a crucial topic that deserves an even more sustained treatmentthan we can give in this book. In this section we focus on somewhatmore exceptional cases that illustrate the avenues that young people arefinding to mobilize new media for economic gain. While the majority ofyouth in our study did not engage in these innovative new forms of economicactivity, the cases that we do have are compelling: they illustratethe emerging potential for activating youth entrepreneurism and real-lifelearning through online networks of peer-based commerce and mediasharing. Unlike training-oriented genres of participation, these entrepreneurialpractices involved youth from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds(though overall these cases were rare). They also involve kidsengaged in productive labor in the here and now rather than as a modelof preparatory work or training.Youth with expertise and interests surrounding media and computersoften understand that they have skills that can translate to economic gain.At the same time, their avenues for earning money from these abilities andinterests are limited. Until they finish with their schooling, they do nothave the option of fully entering the competitive marketplace for high-