This Master thesis analyses consumption from a cultural perspective, based on the role of social contexts. In this sense, it aims to understand what luxury means for the youth who live in Rio de Janeiro, considering the practices and representations of consumption from a specific group entitled it-girls, who live in the favelas and suburbs of the city. In this work, these girls are presented as cultural mediators. Accordingly, this research starts with an online survey with young middle class women that served to the purpose of mapping the relations between youth and consumption, and of identifying how the idea of luxury plays a role in this relationship. In order to further develop the central argument of this work, the online survey is followed by an in-depth literature review that aims to understand the meanings of consumption, and the multiple conceptualizations that material objects can acquire in their consumers lives, as well as to localize in time the meanings of luxury and luxury consumption, and how the later has informed the development of societies over time. Furthermore, the in-depth interview method was used with the it-girls, Ana Carolina, Jessica and Annapaula, dwellers of the neighborhoods of Benfica, Santa Cruz in the Cesarão housing complex, and Tijuca, in the Favela do Salgueiro, respectively. These interviews provided data collection of information, perceptions and experiences. Finally, and still as part of fieldwork, the ethnographic gaze that orients this Master thesis was largely informed by the participant observation in the places where the it-girls live or work, as well as during a field excursion in the luxury mall Village Mall. During these experiences, it was possible to perceive how these girls articulate cultural, social and economic capitals. The interpretation of collected data allowed the understanding that representations of luxury and consumption are subjected to change, considering that the youth is not whole, but rather it is articulated in relation to other social groups, regardless of where they are geographically located, and within the social media realm. Hence, the main findings of this research reaffirm the role of the it-girls as cultural mediators, not only for their capacity to circulate between different social groups, but also for their power to generate new habits, and to transform the social realities of other young women.