Do I have to be her age for her to see me as a potential partner?

[MarkKol]

I'm a little bit on the younger side in terms of how I look, which is a blessing and a curse (curse now, blessing later) I'm relatively calm about it even though I'm sure most people would be hitting their heads against the Wall if they looked as young as me. Problem is... I don't look my age, I never have, people always told me that. my dad confirmed it for me, he got asked for his ID when he was buying cigarettes at 32 years old, so it's in the blood.

I am not going to allow this to become a limiting belief, so my question is... how does age impact my ability to attract girls? Can a 20 year old woman see a 18 year old (who barely looks 16) guy as a potential mate? Do girls automatically filter me out because they see me as a boy and not a man?

I remember reading about Marilyn Monroe sleeping with a 15 year old kid (Gianni Russo) while she was 33 years old. I don't know how old Gianni looked back then but seeing him now, I can tell he was handsome 

are all girls like this? If I'm confident enough, social enough, funny enough... can I actually attract girls who are way older than me? 

I tried doing social circle a few times, I clearly attracted some girls, but there wasn't any 20 year old girls turning their heads for me

 

Might I add that I have a preference for mature, non spoiled woman. I don't like it when they're obsessed with clothing brands, lazy, gossiping etc.. 

I met some young looking people who are in the same position as me, and they're quite insecure about it.

[NoSelfSelf]

So your looks will determin if a girl wants you or not?

 

[something_else]

I mean you can definitely go for older women for more casual things as long as they're down for the same. I think a relationship with someone a lot older than you might be harder to find and is also not really advisable.

Most older women are going to want guys older than them for something long term. But never say never. Go out and try to find what you want, what's the worst that can happen?

[Loba]

I'm older, 34 - generally if I'm looking for a partner it's going to be in the mid-30's to early 50's range - preferably mid-40's as I like to be the "little one", and I see guys in their 20's as still being children.  They even look like kids to me.  When I was in my 20's, guys in their 20's looked like adults, but I can't see them that way anymore - I view them as people who are getting their lives together, who may want to start a family someday, who are still struggling to find themselves and if I were to go for a guy that young I would feel like I was not only impeding on him finding what he was actually looking for, but that I would be wasting what little youth I have on something that couldn't be a long-term thing.  I would become way more worried about my looks, I would feel insecure about what people would think of me, it just wouldn't work.  But with a guy who is around my age or older, he has more of a chance to have his life together.  The thing is, most guys at this age who do have their shit together are married or in relationships.  If things went ideally for me, I would have found someone who was ten years older in my 20's.

That's what I suggest for women, to avoid their guys walking out on them when they hit the 40 year mark, a lot of them cheat for younger women, so if a girl in her 20's goes for a guy in his 30's, she still has her looks to get her through a man's midlife crisis, avoiding that mark where you find a lot of perv scouring for high school age girls.

Honestly, I would stick to your age range as a guy\ if you can, but that's just my 2c.  It is unusual for an older woman to want to go for a younger guy.