A Writing Quandary / Solution

It's been another long time between posts, but I reached another sticking point in my current writing project, What Luck. And I tried to work it all out in my head, instead of on paper or in this blog. I always seem to do this to my writing - things are going along pretty well, and then I get to a potential problem, and I feel stuck. It's like some kind of self-sabatoge - there always seems to be something that keeps me from finishing a project. But I'm determined to finish What Luck, so I tried to tackle this problem head-on, and get past it, so I can keep writing. And I think I found a solution.
The problem is the age of my main character. I wanted to write the story for older teens, so I thought the girl's age would be around 16. But as I've been trying to write What Luck, it just wasn't working. As the character developed, she just didn't seem to be a realistic 16-year-old, in the context of the story. It became clearer to me that the main character's interests and concerns are more like those of a younger adolescent, around 13 or 14. Then the story makes much more sense. But I realized if I change her age, it changes the entire book, as well as the target audience - the readership would be much younger than older teens. I really want to write edgy, mature-themed books for older teens and college-age readers, but I can see now that
What Luck isn't going to be one of them. I need to just write the story out, and let it and the characters emerge naturally. And it will be the story that it's meant to be.
So I re-wrote the beginning of the Prologue, and read it at the WWG meeting last night. They hadn't heard the earlier version, because I've been grappling with it since our last meeting, but I told them about my writing quandary. But after I read, Michelle, Lisa and Rich all agreed that it seems realistic that it's a 13-year-old girl telling the story. And Rich said it's the most relaxed writing he's heard from me. I guess that's because I decided to get myself out of the way of the story, and just write it as I feel it's meant to be. And reading it aloud and getting positive feedback confirmed that changing the character's age is right for this story. Thanks for your help with this problem, guys, and for helping me get back on track!
I enjoyed hearing everyone's writing last night, as always. Lisa finished reading a long speculative fiction short story - I love her imagination and her ability to ground her preternatural ideas in realistic characters, settings, and details. She said it breaks all the rules for the speculative short story market - it's too long, and in first-person present tense - but it's so good, and I hope some editor is astute enough to take a chance on it. Rich read part of a new short story - more beautiful, spare language, realistic characters and a topical subject. It's excellent - I can't wait to hear the rest of it next time. I've really missed hearing his writing, and I'm so glad he's back. We all are. Michelle read a fun story she wrote for one of the "Write-Brain Workbook" exercises. It was good, with a great sense of humor and observation - I think she could expand it into a longer work, if she wants to. She's been focused on re-writing her middle-grade novel, Blackboard, for the SCBWI conference that we're attending in June. I sent in my registration yesterday afternoon - I'm really looking forward to it. I also printed out the registration form and information and gave it to Michelle last night. I hope that the conference will work out well for both of us. I have a feeling it will. Now I just have to keep up with writing What Luck, until I reach its finish line.