A quick question

Hi. I don't usually come into the YA forum, as I've never intentionally written a YA book before. BUT, and there had to be a but, the first book I ever wrote was critiqued by my sister (one of the few who have read even part of it...) and she said, "The story is adult, but the writing is for kids." Paraphrasing.

Now, as soon as she said that, I realised, Yes, the writing itself wouldn't be a problem for teens. Also, I've read more YA than my sister has, and I know that you can have pretty much any storyline you want providing it's "accessible" to teens in the way it's written.

So, I have this book that I love, that is "written" in a way that teens could easily read, and it could even feasibly be MG in nature. BUT all the characters are in their twenties...

Does YA and MG HAVE to have characters that are in the same age range as the target audience? Like I said, I don't usually come in here, so this might be a stupid question, but there it is.

Basically what I'm asking is, "Should I change the age of my characters and change their dialogue a little to reflect that, or does it not matter, considering I'm probably going to try and sell it as YA?"

(Note: I won't be posting an excerpt - I know the language of the book will be fine with teens, and possibly younger.)

Thanks in advance!

The language is pretty simple, there's no swearing, it's not too dark a subject matter... all things which to my (possibly naive) opinion makes it more a YA book than an adult book.

I know there will always be YA books that have swearing, and somewhat more difficult language, and sometimes darker subject matter, and all that, but the lacking of such things in my book makes me think, PERHAPS, kids and teens would appreciate the writing moreso than adults.

*shrug*

But it's good to know that not all YA/MG books have teen/pre-teen MCs, so thanks.

Thanks.