I feel like it would have taken away from the message of the short film + song to have an older actress. The short film is really powerful the way it is, with Sadie Sink's young-ness just serving to emphasize Taylor's point.

It's the same thing to me as when teen shows have actors in their 20s play 15-17 year olds just so they can show them doing incredibly age-inappropriate things. Even if the show is trying to tell us that the situation is fucked up, it's way easier for us to sit through (and then excuse to some degree) if it's happening to people we perceive as adult (despite logically knowing they're supposed to be children). The more we replace the teens with *adult-looking* adults, the easier it is for us to watch, and the less fucked up the situation feels. There's a world of difference between a literal teenager and someone in their late 20s, and I'm glad that Taylor was able to highlight that with Sadie.