This article proposes an interpretation of the role of brands for today’s hypermodern adolescents as shown through their rapport to consumption in the ‘passage’ to adulthood. First, it shows how consumption is invested, as are other youth practices, as a space for the expression of autonomy whose finality is recognition through the validation of personal choices. Second, the article describes how brands act as symbols of identity which conciliate desires for autonomy and belonging. Brands and consumption practices therefore play a fundamental role in construction of autonomy and the appropriation of social norms for youth today.