“At the risk of being called a contrarian, I must point out that the female matures far earlier than the male. More “mature” interests are more common in the female than the male of a given age. Alas, many males have the interests of a tomcat far into life.”
Have you actually been around 20 some year old girls recently? That rule no longer applies.
Since you mentioned it, I had a 16 year old, who was in the middle of the Everglades doing a scene for an education video, give the following reply to the question of why did younger voters vote for Obama: “They saw shiny and they went for it.”
16 and she was able to “Younger Voter as Bass” theorem on the spur of the moment. She also knew that like that bass on the wall, the younger voter could have avoided being in a bad place with just a bit of thought before acting.
I had a 10 year old blond granddaughter of a colleague look at data from the Big Cypress National Preserve’s Endangered Florida Panther Program, realize the PullusFemus therein, and say of the blond AgencyPerson who was the Project Leader - “It is because of people like her that I have to listen to blond jokes”.
In point of fact, the Internet has increased the number of aware younger people of both sexes, and the TEA Party members seem to be parents of many.
;-)