Very interesting topic.
I got into coding in my late thirties. At the very beginning it wasn’t all that intuitive to me, then I realized 2 key points.
The first one was my love for languages. I picked up English and French quite easily and although programming languages don’t follow the same pattern as natural languages, some concepts are similar, like syntax and even meaning: accomplishing something by coding could be a bit similar to making oneself understood in another language.
The second key factor was my background in Philosophy research: the subject gave me the training in logic and analytical problem solving, while having done academic research meant that being always curious and keeping up with learning new stuff was sort of second nature to me.
So I guess, although as a rule being young helps, being older with the right baggage can have its advantages too.