Absolutely. But I also feel the pressure to be as authentic to my personal experience as possible and to give the opportunity to my crew members to express themselves as honestly and personally as possible. What I’ve found in my life is that, without having access to stories from individuals like myself, I felt what I was experiencing was either irrelevant or just nonexistent. I didn’t have any way to find a connection to other people who were going through what I was going through as a kid. Especially because L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. stories were considered “adult,” so they were kept away from me when I was young.

Often, the conversation around representation is directed toward cis, male, white showrunners and how they can make a positive impact, which is extremely important. But in the case of “Steven Universe,” we’re telling stories about our own experiences. I think it is so critical that L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. people have a platform to reach others like them and not just tell their own stories, but also have fun.

The series also features an extremely diverse cast of voice actors. Was that intentional?

Everything is a reflection of the team. I developed the show with Ian Jones-Quartey and many of the characters are based on his family, my family, as well as our other writers and storyboarders. Many members of the “crewniverse” are people of color, so, to be accurate to our experiences, it made sense for that to be part of every aspect of the show.

You went from creating 11-minute episodes to making a 90-minute musical. Was your creative process different?

It was a completely different project. It was massive. We were coming off our hourlong special, “Change Your Mind,” so we had just done the hardest thing that we’d ever done. Then, all of a sudden, we were entering the new hardest thing. This wasn’t just many episodes lined up next to each other. We’d done arcs that lasted many episodes. But to make something that would work on its own, you approach it really differently.