Young Sheldon Boss Says the Show's Young Stars 'Opened Up' Storytelling Opportunities as They Grew Up (Exclusive)

Many kids go through an awkward phase when they hit puberty, but that wasn’t the case for Young Sheldon's charismatic young stars.

During a recent interview with PEOPLE, the show’s executive producer and co-showrunner Steve Holland reflected on Iain Armitage, Raegan Revord and Montana Jordan, who spent almost half their lives working on the CBS comedy, which airs its final episodes on Thursday, May 16.

“They were so young when we started,” Holland says, adding, “Watching them grow and watching them get better, it opened up what we could write every year, which was exciting. … We keep saying that somehow these kids managed to avoid any sort of awkward stage. They went from being really adorable little kids to being incredibly attractive young adults."

Revord, who plays Sheldon Cooper’s sister Missy, was just 9 years old when she was cast — and Holland marveled at how far she's come as an actress in the years since.

“At the beginning, I think Raegan would throw in one-line zingers here and there, but as the years went on and she got so good, we could really lean on her for a whole story or an emotional story, and it just opened up the kind of things that we could write,” he explains. “And I think it let the show kind of grow up with the kids, where the stories we could tell could get a little bit more adult and a little bit deeper as the show went on.”

At PaleyFest 2024 in April, Revord, 16, told PEOPLE she likes to think of her Young Sheldon costars, particularly Montana Jordan, as real-life “siblings.”

“We're telling people, ‘Yeah, we're actually brother and sister,’ and I love it I actually now have my own brothers,” she said. “I'm always texting Montana. I'm like, ‘Hey, I'm going to annoy you and ask if you want to do something today. Come say ‘hi’ to me.”

Jordan, who plays Georgie, was 14 when he auditioned for Young Sheldon. He told PEOPLE at the same event he shares a similar perspective to Revord about his younger castmates.

“I got two older sisters in real life, and on the show, I’ve got a little brother and a little sister, so I got the best of both worlds,” said Jordan, 21, adding that growing up on the set of Young Sheldon was something he “never imagined” he’d do. “From a place where I'm from, a small little town in Texas, I got 1,200 people in my town. This kind of sh-- don't happen. … If they didn't bless me with this opportunity of being on this show, I wouldn't be here right now."

Armitage, 15, was 8 years old when he auditioned to play the younger version of Jim Parsons' former The Big Bang Theory character Sheldon Cooper. During an interview with PEOPLE in February, the actor recognized the impact the show has had and expressed gratitude for the experience.

“It's been half my life, which is kind of wild to think about, but just so fun, so wonderful, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to grow up,” he said. “Every single person I get to work with, I feel so honored to get to be working with and get to be their costar or … get to be part of their work and part of their livelihood.”

Holland won’t be the only adult who worked on Young Sheldon who will miss the young actors. Annie Potts, who portrays the children’s feisty grandmother Meemaw, grew teary-eyed during an interview with PEOPLE in April as she spoke about her costars.

“They were so little when we started. They were this big, and now look at them,” Potts said. “My God, they all turned out so beautiful and so sweet, and we feel like we had a hand in raising them … When we started out, they would sit in my lap and just play with my fingers and kiss me and tell me they love me all day long. That, and they still do actually. They're a little big for my lap, but they still love me and kiss me all day long and tell me they love me. That's not a bad way to live.”

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Young Sheldon’s two-part series finale airs Thursday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.