Word for Young Adult Woman in Japanese?

[Janet Merai]

So here is what I am trying to do.

Using Picasa, I am tagging photos in Japanese for concept reference (largely so I do not default to English as it won't help me learn) for characters I want to create for my game.
I find this very convenient because I can search for tagged words and focus on particular aspects of design and reference.
However, there are drawings and CG illustrations I enjoy that I would like to tag correctly and not based on my incorrect knowledge

There is one in particular I heavily enjoy because one character I am designing is portrayed both young and adult (two separate games and theme reasons) but I wanted to know.

What is a proper word or suffix to refer to a girl who isn't very old like 30-ish but old to be young like a young adult?
There is a history for her younger age at around 4 - her older counterpart.
Say like 19 or 20, what is a good or accurate word/suffix to refer to a character as such?

Female, 18-ish or 20, not exactly adult nor young but in-between.
I think this is a very common trend.

Thank you for any help people :3

 

[Mike Cash]

Trying to figure out what you're asking for made my head hurt.

You want a suffix appropriate when addressing a woman of about 30? Or a term that applies to a woman of about 30 that wouldn't be applied to a woman of about 20?

 

[Janet Merai]

Yes, 18 or 20.

But since I will be the only one seeing these words, it does not have to be proper, I just want to tag the suffix to the picture so I can refer to the age range when going through ideas.

My ideal age is 18 or 20 since 17 is considered young.

 

[Andromedashun]

I only know 少女 (Shoujo).

 

[nekojita]

若い女性？ It's more broad, but I honestly don't think you'll find a word that is specifically only for people aged 18 to 20.

Since it's only for internal reference why not just use something like:
"character name: 二十歳"

 

[nice gaijin]

Why would you bother with a suffix, unless you're referring to name+ちゃん versus name+さん...

if you're tagging photos, i assume you can apply multiple tags. Why not tag it with name, and make another tag stating the character's age in the photo... あきこ、二十歳 and あきこ、三十歳. Or you could go with 二十歳のあきこ, etc.

Please try to write more clearly, your request was not easy to understand.

 

[Elizabeth]

女子 is also good I think.

２０才前半までの女の人 ?
中学生以上からの女の人 ?

 

[Mike Cash]

女子 has a much broader age range:

女子高生
女子中学生

are a couple of illustrative examples.

If there is a term that applies specifically to 18-20 year old women I've never heard it and I wonder what leads Janet to think there is one. What other specific narrow age ranges does she also think there are specific terms for? Once we get past things like 新生児 or 幼児 or 児童 things broaden up pretty quickly. Referential terms like お嬢さん or お姉さん or おばさん are open to a far wider range of ages than a couple of years and have no carved-in-stone age range anyway.

I find it makes my life easier to just use 美人 as both a second-person pronoun and as an honorific suffix.

 

[Elizabeth]

There is obviously nothing precise unless you modify it as girls on the cusp on the age of majority. I suggested 女子 because at least it has an upper limit of 20 or a little above and below.

 

[undrentide]

There is obviously nothing precise unless you modify it as girls on the cusp on the age of majority. I suggested 女子 because at least it has an upper limit of 20 or a little above and below.

It used to be, but nowadays 女子 is applied to really a wide range of age group - if you look up words such as 女子会, 女子力, they easily refer to the 'girls' in their 20s, or sometimes even 30s!

 

[Elizabeth]

Oh, thanks for the tracking. I heard it was 22-25ish. But that was from a man in his 50's.

 

[Mike Cash]

The dividing line between お姉さん and おばさん is also highly subjective.