All the fairytales and ponies marketed to her gender failed to spark any sense of magic or wonder. And that disconnect was something Sugar, now 31, still felt in her adulthood when she became a cartoonist and animator herself. So Sugar decided to channel those self-analytical questions into her art.

“I’ve always liked to start projects around something I didn’t fully understand about myself yet,” Sugar says in a recent interview with Fast Company. “I felt a huge amount of guilt for liking cartoons for boys. I’d never really been able to connect to cartoons that were supposed to be for girls, and I wanted to unpack that.”

That process led Sugar to create Steven Universe. Since its premiere in 2013, Steven Universe has become one of Cartoon Network’s most critically acclaimed series, earning three Emmy nominations. From January to September of this year, the series’ five seasons have attracted nearly 230 million viewers across linear TV and all of Cartoon Network’s platforms. The show has also spawned a New York Times bestselling children’s book and a Billboard chart-topping soundtrack. Steven Universe‘s popularity has pushed Sugar to define her voice as a showrunner and songwriter–even if it means getting “dangerously personal.”

Steven Universe is an emotionally nuanced action-adventure-musical animated series that follows its titular character, a Pollyannaish teen who’s sworn to protect his idyllic hometown from a militant group of aliens bent on sucking Earth of its resources. Steven lives and fights alongside the Crystal Gems, a group of aliens who defected and settled on Earth eons ago after an intergalactic civil war. Steven Universe hits on classic themes for animated kids shows, including the importance of teamwork and friendship. But it also goes much deeper than that, exploring and deconstructing gender norms.

Since the Gems are aliens, they have no human gender constructs. But they’re all female-presenting and use “her” and “she” pronouns, which creates several scenarios of same-sex relationships. One of the most touching story arcs involves Ruby and Sapphire, two Gems who accidentally fuse together on their native planet, Homeworld, and become a new Gem called Garnet. Until then, fusion was unheard of and deemed an abomination, which forced Ruby and Sapphire to flee to Earth. Knowing they’re meant to be together, they join the growing resistance of other expat Gems who’ve banded together against Homeworld’s oppressive regime. Their relationship culminates in a wedding in season five.

In addition to its Emmy nominations, Steven Universe has also received two GLAAD Media Award nominations, sparked a global partnership with Dove to promote inclusivity and empowerment, and helped earn Sugar recognition in Variety‘s 2017 Inclusion Impact Report. However, the accolades came after Sugar drew her lines in the sand with network execs who initially expressed concerns about the show’s subject matter.