#connverse

This is him right before he moved in

This is him right when he moved in at 8 years old.

And then he remained looking that way for SIX YEARS.

Gems dont grow. They're born the way they are. If a gem is childish and small they will remain that way for the rest of time. Change is an abstract, even taboo concept for Gems and subconsiously the Gems enforced this belief on Steven. They treated him like he would never change and he didnt.

Until Connie came along.

Steven had been surrounded by people who never expected him to change. Sure he had some human contact, his dad, Lars, Sadie, Onion, The Pizza Family, The Frymen family. But they weren't close to him. Not really. The only one that could've done anything was his dad, but he had already accepted Steven wouldn't be normal.

It was Connie that really introduced Steven to the human experience. Who introduced him to the concept of school, to reading, to learning, to growing. He gave him the expectation that he should change.

So he began to grow alongside her. Despite the fact that he was around 2 years older, he grew up with her and at the same pace. He finally had a reference, something to live up to.

He still wasnt growing naturally though. He was still the expectation of what he should look like. And while it was never shown in the show, we can see that eventually Steven did start growing naturally. That he began growing stubble, that he began caring less about a color scheme and became more and more human