Soulja Boy, Justin Bieber, and Tavi Gevinson are hardly representative of typical youth experiences, but their origins highlight many of the realities of youth doing independent creative work. Out of the Basement profiles the variety of youth cultural production in the twenty-first century, and asks what has - or has not - changed as youth attempt to make a living from creative works. Though any young person with a laptop might have greater means to make music, films, or publish writing than in the past, the skills necessary to make a living in today's creative industries are not taught in schools - young artists must find their own way out of their basements. Integrating cultural studies, media education, and subculture studies, Miranda Campbell profiles this process of navigation and negotiation - one largely overlooked in discussions of creative economies - through the life stories of young people who are building careers through cultural work. She considers how existing policies can impede small-scale cultural production and calls for more awareness and support of youth creative enterprise. Moving between the structures directed toward creative life and the initiatives that young people produce themselves in the absence of relevant structures, Out of the Basement offers a timely analysis of the rise of small-scale creative employment.

Miranda Campbell is professor of English at Dawson College.

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"Out of the Basement represents a major contribution to research on cultural policy. There's no other book in the field like this one. It valuably allows readers to understand the perspectives of young cultural producers. Its readership will include not only cultural policy analysts, in Canada and internationally, but also scholars of youth and of media production." David Hesmondhalgh, Head of the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds

"Miranda Campbell successfully critiques the current ill-structured neoliberal conditions that surround and shape youth. Her book is well supported through her creative use of youth voices and real-life examples of youth engaged in cultural productions, including social media sensations. Campbell's book is essential for anyone and everyone interested in youth cultural productions. More importantly, every single policymaker, teacher, and parent should read this book. It serves as a mirror of the reality facing young people "stuck" in oldfashioned systems that are truly disabling their vocational lives, leading them to give-up or surrender to a neoliberal system that values "skills" over creative and innovative souls and minds." Canadian Journal of Communication