I'm a "mature category" woman.
I have this age policy and now clearly state that I will only meet with men 35 and over, although I used to say "prefer" just to put it politely.  
 It became clear that this led some who were much younger than that (23!) to think they still had a chance.  For a short time, I did give gentlemen who were close to that age (32, 33 etc) the opportunity to open a dialogue and if I felt comfortable after texting/emailing, then we would meet.

After doing this a few times, I learned that this simply didn't work for me.

 
For me, age really is a number..... a number that makes me uncomfortable.  I don't care how mature, sophisticated or experienced you are (heck, some of my favorite regular friends are immature, unsophisticated 60-yr-olds! lol!) if you are that much younger than me (more than a decade) than I will not be relaxed enough to make our time together the best it can be.   I'll be on edge, uneasy, and just unable to provide the best experience possible.  

Nowadays I still get contacted by those who read my policy but are still hopeful.  Some who are in their 30s say that they'll be looking forward to seeing me in a few years when they do meet that age requirement......

But by then, I might have raised my minimum age to 40.  

Most of my clients are over 60.  A significant percentage of my regular friends are over 70.    
Those are the folks with whom I'm often the most comfortable.  

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox