"I'm calling it: Only douchebags date much younger girls."

Now that Kylie Jenner is legally an adult, she and her 25-year-old rapper boyfriend Tyga have finally gone public with their relationship.

To mark Kylie’s 18th birthday, Tyga wasted no time in letting the world know that he’s sleeping with only-just-legal young woman… By posting a suggestive image of her, dripping wet and peeling off her clothes, to Instagram.

We all know provocative social media posts are nothing new for Kylie or her Kardashian sisters, for that matter.

But there’s something about this particular one that jars. Because, at the time of taking that picture, Kylie must’ve been 17, while Tyga would’ve been 24 or 25.

And while eight years is no huge age difference in your 30s, 40s or beyond, it makes a heck of a difference when one of you is barely out of school.

Before you start getting fired about that one couple you know who are great together despite the decade between their birth years, hear me out. I know that sometimes, age is truly just a number. I know there are exceptions to every rule. Heck, my own parents have a seven-year age gap.

But I’ve also seen a lot of dodgy relationships that have two things in common — a young girl and a much older guy. So today I’m calling it: it’s usually only douchebags that date much younger girls.

I’ve been there myself. When I was 19, I found myself dating a man 12 years my senior — a guy that dazzled me with his sense of humour, high-paying job and interesting friends.

He had a designer house. A black (leather) book filled with all manners of interesting work contacts; hundreds of pop-culture references that made his text banter next-level smooth.

After years of dating uni-aged guys whose idea of a fancy dinner out involved BYO wine at the local dumpling house, I was convinced I’d finally met a man of the world. I thought he was the cultured, clever, ambitious man I was destined for.

Boy, was I wrong.

In retrospect, Mr Nice House was a perfectly lovely guy. But I was blinded by the inevitable ‘street cred factors’ that come with age like financial security, friends with more developed jobs, a flasher car than mine. So overwhelmed by the bells and whistles was I, that I ultimately overlooked the fact that if he’d been my age, there would have been nothing much remarkable about him.

His pop culture references? Just the byproduct of living half a generation before me. His car ownership? Yeah, that happens when you get older. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ambitious.

Knowingly or otherwise, my older boyfriend has cashed in on his age by going for the girl who’d be impressed by it: someone much, much younger.

In other words, I mistook ‘older’ for ‘awesome.’

Related: Woody Allen’s latest movie is creepy.

I’m not the only one who feels this way, either. A friend of mine told me she got involved with a much older guy as a teenager – only to learn he was deeply immature, hence him choosing such a younger partner. She said:

When I was 18, I dated a guy who was 27. I was the youngest girlfriend he’d ever had. He was fresh out of rehab for drug addiction and was unemployed. He lived at home with his parents. It was really obvious that his period of addiction had left him pretty stunted in terms of his maturity. 

Another says the age gap had an ‘aging’ effect on the young woman involved… and not in a good way:

My nan was 18 when she married her 43-year-old husband. What’s sad is that is that she’s mentally ‘aged herself’ to him — so she retired at 40. She’s now only in her early 70s, but thinks she is old and can’t do anything. It can’t be good for her.

I’ve got two friends with massive ‘daddy issues’ and I get creepy vibes about the dynamic. I’ve observed the older man use their money, power and life experience to show off and control younger women.

My question for these guys is: if they’re such eligible bachelors, why haven’t women of their own age expressed an interest?

Or is it that these older guys can’t deal with the intellect and ambitions of a woman their own age and opt to ‘trade down’ for someone younger and less mature?

I know it sounds judgmental, but it all feels a little off to me. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Have you ever dated someone much older? How was it for you?

Some famous age-discrepancy matches. Some creepy, and some kinda gorgeous (Amal and George, we’re looking at you)…

Related:

I didn’t see the danger in my relationship until a friend asked this one question.

“Why I regret dating older men.”