Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 34, Issue 2, pp. 244–264, ISSN 0195-6086, electronic ISSN 1533-8665. © 2011 by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permis- sion to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/si.2011.34.2.244. Coming of Age in the Bubble: Suburban Adolescents’ Use of a Spatial Metaphor as a Symbolic Boundary Yuki Kato Tulane University This article explores how suburban middle-class adolescents use a spatial metaphor, “bubble,” as a symbolic boundary. The narratives about the bubble, collected through focus group discussions and eth- nographic observations, show consensus among the teenagers about the socioeconomic and cultural superiority of the community, but they also reveal opposing views on its moral status. I also find that the teens use the same metaphor to draw moral distinctions among their peers, based on whether they align their identity with the norms and values the bubble symbolizes. I argue that the adolescents living in this com- munity develop a strong place identity, even when they identify flaws with it, because their mundane references to the bubble provide them with an opportunity to critically examine the implication of their middle- class status. Keywords: teenagers/adolescents, suburb, class identity, space and place, urban sociology, symbolic boundaries Space both shapes and is shaped by our behaviors and identities. We attribute sym- bolic meanings to the space through the way we occupy and appropriate it, but space also guides how we interact with each other by physically or symbolically signaling the expected norms of our actions associated with it. In other words, space is more than just backgrounds and contexts to our social interactions; rather, it is a medium through which we explore our identities. This article investigates how adolescents in a master-planned, middle-class suburb identify with their spatial environment by examining their use of a spatial metaphor, bubble, as a symbolic boundary. The bubble was used exclusively among teenagers to describe the physical and social characteristics of the community I call Planville. References to the metaphor carried various meanings, though they were rarely articulated voluntarily. It was its pervasiveness in conversations among the teens or with me that led to my closer Direct all correspondence to Yuki Kato, Department of Sociology, Tulane University, 220 Newcomb Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118-5698; e-mail: ykato@tulane.edu.