I found that the werewolf trait made it easier for Rags to Riches. Moonwood Mills is not a warm place. My first reward trait is always cold acclimation. I always end out back to making my rags to riches werewolf a teen.
The child alone is fun for me only when it is Father Winter's Baby. This Russian Fairy Tale is part of my backstory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Frost_(fairy_tale) She is a total bad ass and all the townies let her do anything she wants. With the Ravasheen fork mod, I can spawn food at all the bars for free, and I pretend that all the bartenders give her a free meal whenever she goes to a bar. She loved METAL Music so is LOUD. With the erratic trait, she is a mess, but happy. There are bunch of tweaks and mods and cheats that I gradually added into my gameplay. With the Ravasheen bus mod, she can hang out in Littlesimsie's castle on top of Mt Komorebi. Sometimes I add a butler or robot up there for her. She is friends with lots of stray and rabbits and birds and the scarecrow. She homeschools herself at the library instead of going to school. Sometimes she sleeps in the lighthouse museum where I added an antique bed and a mini fridge. There is a kids book about a runaway that lived in a museum. https://www.amazon.com/Mixed-up-Files-Mrs-Basil-Frankweiler/dp/1416949755
But back to werewolf teens. The lonewolf aspiration requires sparring 5 teens and Jacob is the only werewolf teen. I have to make some teens for my teen to spar, which is a bit of a nuisance. They need to be cheated or played until they are advanced enough to spar.
Having a dog is a major challenge. Maybe that is exactly what you want. This Lets Play helped me so much at the beginning, and it includes the teen adopting a stray dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24GXP6dVne0&t=1369s