What explains Brazilian interests in the Arctic and the Antarctic regions? This chapter offers an explanation based on Brazil’s pursuit of status in world politics after periods of economic growth. As a country whose territory is located mainly in the tropical zone, Brazil would hardly have stakes in the Northern and Southern poles. Yet, since from the 1970s onward, Brazilian gross domestic product (GDP) has frequently ranked in the top 10 worldwide, the largest nation in Latin America emulates both established and rising great powers in the pursuit of symbols of status in international society. The process of seeking status can be understood as a form of balancing: preferred by regional powers like Brazil with the purpose of showing to the global community that they may eventually match the capabilities of great powers, understood in contemporary times as being the states that have nuclear military capacity, large territory and population, and/or economic strength. Hence, in expressing interests in the Arctic and the Antarctic regions, Brazil deploys a balance of status strategy against regional and global competitors alike. I build this argument by revising the literature on international status, as well as works on balancing, in particular its soft versions. I then employ official documents from the ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs of Brazil with the purpose of doing process tracing and reconstituting the origins and the evolution of the Brazilian policy in the relation to the Arctic and the Antarctic regions. While action related to the Antarctic region can be traced back to the early 1980s as Brazil started cooperating with Argentina and leaving aside its nuclear and, hence, great power ambitions, the pursuit of interests in the Arctic followed Chinese and Indian movements to join the Arctic Council as observer states in the twenty-first century. The contribution of the chapter is therefore twofold. In theoretical terms, it contributes to the literature on balancing and status. In empirical terms, it offers a better understanding than earlier contributions that have assessed separately the Brazilian interests in the Northern and Southern poles.