Too Young to be friends?

Hi everyone,

I have an issue going on and I don’t know what to do. I’m 20 years old and have been working at my job for 3 years. My coworker, who I will call B, has been working with me for only a month in a half. When I first met her I thought she was 18 or 19 years old. She looks around that age, but how she talks and acts seemed like she was in her 20s. So I assumed she was close to my age, but I actually found out she is 16 years old. When we found out she was 16 years old we were all so shocked because she acts so mature for her age. She will talk about her future plans, her work experience, how she moved up a year in school, and is just very kind and knows how to be mature in a work place (even some of my older coworkers don’t act mature). After that, we all would tease her for being so young compared to the rest of us. Although we tease her, we know she’s an awesome worker and a really smart person (she was supposed to be a junior in high school, but she moved up a grade).

Now, this is the part that gets complicated for me. I have been working a lot of shifts with her recently and we always have fun, but last week she said to me “You’re such a cool person, we should hang out one day!” And she brought up hanging out again today. Although she’s super kind and cool, I’m kind of freaked out she asked me to hangout with her. She has told me that most of her friends are older, but to me it’s just weird to hangout with someone thats literally 4 years younger than you.

Do you guys think it would be weird for me to hangout with someone way younger than me? Or do you think it’s fine? She’s super mature and a fun person to hangout with, but the age difference just freaks me out. When I started college last year, I actually felt kind of lonely because I don’t have a lot of friends. When she said she wanted to hangout with me that made me so happy, but again, she’s so young. One thing me and her relate to is that we’re both socially awkward and only have 2-3 friends. One thing I thought, is if I hangout with her, I could be like a sister figure to her, but again, the whole age thing is confusing me.

What should I do?