Straddling the divide between stars and planets, brown dwarfs offer crucial clues to formation and evolution in both the stellar and planetary regimes. I shall present recent results from optical, infrared and sub-mm/mm observations (spectroscopy and imaging) of young brown dwarfs, with a view to understanding their origins and early evolution. In particular, I will discuss their accretion processes and disk evolution, and investigate the implications for their formation mechanism: an issue that is vital for understanding the stellar IMF as well. I shall also present new spectroscopic and imaging data for 2M1207-B, the recently discovered planetary mass companion to a young brown dwarf. I will briefly discuss its atmosphere (the first extension of ultra-cool L-type atmospheres to very young ages) and formation, and finally present evidence that it harbors a circum-planetary disk.