Jolly Young on Playboy Bunnies, Gloria Steinem & Mensa

Jolly Young, a Playboy Bunny who worked in the New York City club in the early ‘60s, was charged with training newbie Gloria Steinem, who was really writing an undercover story about the Bunny experience. Now looking back, Young is dismayed to have been simply characterized as the “Chinese Bunny who stuffed her costume with gym socks.” Instead, Young wishes that Steinem saw the earning power the Bunnies achieved, as well as how it served as a launch pad for many brilliant careers (and for Steinem too). Young, a member of Mensa and a math major at Hunter College, had an experience at the club that went unwritten about. There was diversity in the workplace, financial freedom, education subsidies, and flexible work schedules to accommodate single moms and full-time students. Read Young’s recollections at the Daily Beast and see how these young women weren’t just dumb bunnies, but used what they learned and earned to find personal and professional freedom.