Str_to_date will return null values if you pick the wrong format or the function detects an out of range month or day number. In your example you have picked a wrong format %y should be %Y. Here are some samples of what can happen. (nb: str_to_date is poor at this and doesn't check how many days are valid for a month)
MariaDB [sandbox]> create table t (dt text);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.28 sec)
MariaDB [sandbox]> insert into t values ('2017-13-01'),('2017-04-31'),('2017-04-33'),('2017-04-03'),('birth_date');
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.02 sec)
Records: 5 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
MariaDB [sandbox]>
MariaDB [sandbox]> select str_to_date(dt,'%y-%m-%d') Invalid_year_format,
-> str_to_date(dt,'%Y-%m-%d') Valid_year_format_MM_and_DD,
-> datediff(now(),str_to_date(dt,'%Y-%m-%d')) datediff_examples
-> from t;
+---------------------+-----------------------------+-------------------+
| Invalid_year_format | Valid_year_format_MM_and_DD | datediff_examples |
+---------------------+-----------------------------+-------------------+
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
| NULL | 2017-04-31 | -6 |
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
| NULL | 2017-04-03 | 22 |
| NULL | NULL | NULL |
+---------------------+-----------------------------+-------------------+
5 rows in set, 11 warnings (0.00 sec)
Engine=MyISAM?\0with date and afterREPLACEthat i am able to perform date operations..thanks