The main objective of the paper is to present an outline for an approach studying young people as learners across contexts, presented here as a "learning lives approach". For youth, the two most time-consuming aspects of their daily lives are schooling and media use. In research, we tend to study these as two separate worlds. The challenge is to find ways of understanding the interconnections between these two worlds as experienced by young people. The term "learning lives" is meant to grasp the longer trajectories of learning that young people are involved in, moving from one setting to another. The paper explores key issues that inform a learning lives approach: theoretically, conceptually and methodologically. It is broader in scope than former approaches, comprising a study of learning as lifelong and lifewide in studying young people, new media and learning. (Contains 1 note.)