What Does a 100-Year-Old 17-Year-Old Vampire See in a 17-Year-Old Human?
It’s a very good question, and I was happy to receive this inquiry from a curious mother whose younger teenage daughter is reading the series. The following is her very thoughtful question and my response. As I include in my answer, you can certainly learn some of the answers yourself by reading, but, having read the books 8 times now (I think), I can easily give an answer to the not-yet-a-TwiFan. It also makes me happy to be able to write another Twipost!
~Question~
Ok, I will admit I haven’t read any of the books ([youngest] is on the last one now). I did finally watch the first movie this weekend and I have some questions for you – since you are an expert on it.
Does Edward essentially stay 17 in thought, maturity level, etc. even though he’s been 17 since (was it) 1918? If he does, that would explain why he is attracted to another 17 year old, despite the fact that he can’t read her mind; which was one of the main reasons he mentioned.
If he does not stay 17 and matures to adulthood over the years, I would think he would be attracted to someone who is more like 40+ years old with more knowledge and life experience. I’m just thinking as far as knowledge goes – he’s been there for every major technological advancement in the last 100 years – in high school or wherever. Obviously has a huge library of music and probably an great appreciation of the arts – having tons of time on his hands not sleeping and all.
Other vampire/immortal stories usually just have adults attracted to adults that are around their own age too. I found this story particularly interesting because there is so much that changes between say 17 and 27.
Well, if it’s just part of the fantasy of the story and doesn’t make much difference that’s fine but I thought I would ask you if you’d ever considered that.
I know, I know, I probably should go and read the books…in all my spare time 
~Answer~
Hehe, I love a good Twilight discussion. It’s true that the answers to your questions are in the story, but many things can be missed in a first read.
Edward was born in 1901, so by age 17 in 1918, he’s grown, ready to join the army (or get married if he’d met Bella). By those standards, he is mature. Then he’s the first to join Carlisle and knowing his “father’s” pure respect for humanity, he is mature in how he acts. His first sister, Rosalie, is about the same age in the 1930′s but is extremely vain. Edward is the first she encounters who does not desire her. He hears everyone’s thoughts so he knows how immature people can be. He does experience a lot of the world’s changes because he has no mate and lots of free time to study. Selfishly Edward wants to keep Bella forever but he knows it is selfish so he decides to live with her for her human life. He doesn’t care what she looks like, she will always be beautiful Bella to him.
Bella is raised by a flighty young mother, and cares for her (in #2 her father Billy says Bella cared “emotionally” for her mother) by trying to keep her from senseless ideas, does the grocery shopping and cooking, etc. Her mother calls Bella “her middle-aged daughter” and says the engagement didn’t surprise her because Bella was never a typical teenager and always committed to her decisions. So Bella is also quite mature. She wasn’t one to marry young, her mother actually was very vocal about that issue (but later revealed it to apply to herself). Bella married b/c she thought it was the responsible choice she could make and share with her friends and family (couldn’t share the immortal choice) and then realized marriage was wonderful.
The vampire world rule was to keep the secret, and this meant never changing the very young humans because they could not be controlled.:-D
~Closing~
L: Lovely. The whole maturity level of Edward being ready to go to war, etc. makes total sense for that time. Most people did marry by their late teens or early 20′s (my grandparents were the exception – they were late 20′s/early 30s…old maids by 1935 standards).
I knew that you would have a reasonable, well thought out explanation. Now I really will have to read the books to get the little extra details.
Me: 
Well, it *was* written by a grown woman with three children.
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