This paper presents the results of a contrastive study of the way that 196 preadolescents in Grenoble (France) view stylistic variation. Various types of data were collected at school in questionnaires, interviews, role-plays and recordings in everyday ordinary situations. The findings that will be discussed here reveal 1) the complexity of the criteria involved in preadolescents’ perception and evaluation of stylistic varieties; 2) the influence of some preadolescents’ network characteristics, such as the social diversity of friendship dyads.