Cassie Kalinger, barely 16, sweeps through a sassy teen fashion store at Westfield Shoppingtown Montgomery (formerly Montgomery Mall), searching for Playboy bunny merchandise among Snoopy shirts and Barbie bags. Bunnies on tees? Got one already. Bunnies on shorts? Check. Bunny earrings? Bunny necklace? Check. Check.

Having collected Playboy bunny belongings for two years, Cassie rarely sees something on outings such as this one that she doesn't already own. On this Friday afternoon, however, her eyes land on a display of pink flip-flops sporting black bunnies. Only $12.99. What a deal.

The real deal is this: Teenage girls are snatching up the very symbol of a lifestyle that their mothers' generation derided as sexist and exploitative. Hugh Hefner's rabbit -- a logo drawn in 30 minutes half a century ago by Playboy magazine's first art director -- has found a new hutch in the younger generation's closets.

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You won't see as many bunnies on young ladies as, say, logos for Old Navy or Abercrombie & Fitch. But local managers at Gadzooks, Hot Topic and Wet Seal, three top teen chain stores, say they can't keep Playboy items on the shelves. "Those who wear it wear a lot of it," says Desiree Venn, manager of Wet Seal in Georgetown.

Even at Georgetown's Commander Salamander, whose merchandise runs more to punk than pretty, the bunny "has done amazingly well," says buyer Anhtu Lu.

At Spencer Gifts, the novelty chain, sales of Playboy merchandise are up 80 percent over last year, according to Pamela Fields, Playboy's senior vice president of licensing.

Fields insists that Playboy designs its clothes and accessories for 18- to 25-year-olds, not girls just learning to drive. "But we understand [read 'are thrilled'] that the brand is elastic on either end," she says.

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What's going on? From the time they could walk, girls have been told it's not the size of their chest that defines who they are or how far they will go. It's their report card. Or their soccer performance, or the depth of their character. (Of course, some mothers who preach such things wore their share of hot pants back when they were teens, not to mention miniskirts and flimsy peasant blouses sans bra.)

You're not a sex object, parents have reminded girls. Females don't need to flaunt it in order to flourish. The last Playboy Club, symbol of liberation to some and exploitation to others, closed 15 years ago.

Every generation rewrites parental scripts. If power over their lives is the goal, some girls ask, why not use everything they've got, including their sexuality? Dressing provocatively doesn't necessarily mean they have sex; in fact, proportionately fewer girls are having intercourse in high school than a decade ago. But if they can attract male attention by wearing a furry creature profile, what's the harm?

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That's the argument Cassie makes to girlfriend Carolina Fojo, also 16, as they break from shopping for a snack in Montgomery Mall's food court. "I want guys to notice me," Cassie admits, while a few feet away a miniature carousel spins 3- and 4-year-olds around. "Once boys notice, they can get to know the real me." Which, she elaborates later, includes being a fierce field hockey goalie, a tutor in D.C. schools and a decent student.

Are you a sex object if you know what you're missing as well as what you offer and are doing something about it?

Pals since kindergarten, Cassie and Carolina are a study in contrasts: Outgoing Cassie, clad in soccer shirt and gym shorts, and the more serious Carolina, in white tee, flowered skirt and turquoise pendant. Carolina, disturbed by her friend's interest in the Playboy bunny, tries to convince Cassie that she shouldn't want the kind of young man who would be drawn to it.

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"He wouldn't be nice. He might start something you couldn't stop," Carolina says, stirring up images of young men grabbing, groping and bruising.

Cassie is not about to go there: "Sure, there are guys who think they have power over women. It's up to the girl to accept it or get away from it."

Carolina tells her friend, "There are enough pigs around. You don't need to encourage them." Elaborating, she says that she and Cassie, students at a Catholic girls' school in Bethesda, have been whistled at and propositioned even when standing at the bus stop wearing their uniforms.

So Cassie claims she's the boss of her body and Carolina says she could end up being the victim. Both may be right, since theories frequently break down in the complexities of real-world adolescence.

The friends agree on one point with sobering implications: The Playboy bunny attire found in the shops they frequent -- often pastel in color and modestly cut -- is tame compared with other provocations on the rack. When stores sell booty shorts, ultra low-rise jeans, high-rise thong underwear and tees saying "Juicy" or worse, "it's easy to dress skanky," Cassie says.

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She believes Playboy is classier. "Wearing the bunny achieves the same effect without needing to show a lot of skin."

Playboy's Fields says a relatively modest design is deliberate, one more step in an effort to mainstream a company that may become the "adult Disney," according to Christie Hefner, CEO and Hugh Hefner's daughter.

With its magazine circulation half of what it was in the late 1970s and its stock value in decline, Playboy Enterprises has gone after the lucrative youth market in a big way: snagging a tour of Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion on television's History Channel (mentioned by several girls in reporting this story) as well as product placement on MTV. Every time pop and film star Jennifer Lopez slips a Playboy bunny handbag over her arm, or Britney Spears appears with the bunny on her bellybutton, you can almost hear the hurrahs at headquarters in Chicago.

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Of the more than $300 million in sales of consumer items the company had last year (not including the magazine), about $200 million came from women, primarily for fashion items and accessories, according to a company spokeswoman. Young men may feel restrained these days from projecting a playboy image, but young women, at least some of them, feel no such inhibitions.

The man who started it all, Hugh Hefner, says he "couldn't be happier" about this. At 77, he remains, despite feminism and pornography commissions, a true believer in the sexual revolution.

Is there any age below which he thinks it's inappropriate to wear the bunny?

"I don't care if a baby holds up a Playboy bunny rattle."

The rabbit, he continues, represents "the best of our sexuality. . . . It symbolizes personal and economic freedom for women, as well as men," and compared with the violent depiction of women in certain teenage music, it is "a breath of fresh air."

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One could argue that some Playboy practices of yesteryear -- like stuffing women into bunny costumes, teaching them to dip toward men with bosoms heaving as they served up drinks and other privileges at Playboy Clubs -- were the forerunners of today's sexist lyrics. To that, Hefner says: "I plead guilty to making people feel free to make choices. Some of them make lousy choices."

But the philosophy represented by the bunny "doesn't mean you screw around without consequences," he insists. "It means you live for the moment with the recognition of tomorrow."

In his case this has meant a parade of girlfriends, two wives and four children, the youngest of whom are 11- and 13-year-old boys.

And in Cassie's case?

"I'm finding new things about myself and my life every day that keep me going," she says. "The people I love, friends and others, keep me going and always wanting to strive for the best. My dad said, 'Life is so fleeting, live and love fully.' I'm trying to live up to his words."

I want guys to notice me," says Playboy bunny logo fan Cassie Kalinger. "Once boys notice, they can get to know the real me."Cassie Kalinger, right, with Carolina Fojo, is among many young women who find Playboy bunny wares fashionable, not exploitative.

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