This article responds to the Alba, Kasinitz and Waters' commentary on the authors' article. The authors state that not all kids are doing "all right," and the substantial number at risk of social and economic stagnation or downward mobility looms as a significant social problem. They contend it is true that right-wing commentators may pick on…

One genre of reality television constructs working-class youth as the dysfunctional antithesis of the aspirational middle-class consumer who normally features in lifestyle media. Sent to boot camps, unruly youths undergo makeover by education into ways of living deemed to accrue superior cultural capital. This article analyses how one lifestyle…