This paper is concerned with exploring issues related to local embeddedness. It is based on material provided by a national sample of young people aged 10-12 years and 14-17 years who were invited to write a single page about their lives and the future. Approximately 34,000 young people did so within a school context. The paper is based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of a stratified random sample of 4100 of these texts. Firstly it looks at the significance and meaning of the local area. Secondly it looks at their life styles as contexts for the relationship between the global and the local, focusing particularly on those related to media and to sporting activities. The paper concludes by noting that although many aspects of young people's lives draw on global products, the young people remain deeply embedded within local contexts structured by age and gender. © 2005, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.