lolita

A lolita is a sexually precocious young girl, or more commonly, a girl perceived as such by an older man attracted to her.

The term comes from the title character of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel about a middle-aged man's obsession with a twelve-year-old.

It often carries implications about the observer's inappropriate desire rather than the girl's actual behavior: He saw every teenage girl as a potential lolita.

The word also names a Japanese fashion subculture emphasizing modest, doll-like Victorian and Rococo-inspired clothing—deliberately innocent rather than sexualized. (Capitalized Lolita is the novel or its character.)