Out of universe?
Natalie Portman was sixteen at the shooting of Episode I and eighteen when it was released.
Jake Lloyd was eight at the shooting and ten when it was released.
They have us believe that Padmé was fourteen when she looked eighteen to twenty:
She was sixteen to seventeen during shooting but she really did not look fourteen.
The reason they force us to suspend our disbelief at her age is that they did not want the story to be creepy. Anakin is supposed to be just five years younger than her so Padmé doesn’t look bad—imagine a 28 year old beginning a romantic relationship with a person who just entered adulthood. She would be a cradle robber.
Out of universe-Natalie Portman was only two years older in Attack of the Clones than she was in Phantom Menace but she is supposed to be ten years older.
The whole thing was just… not very well thought out and this is why. I can’t really think of a possible in-universe explanation other than “Natalie looked really old for a fourteen year old,” or even “Tatooine humans age faster, like Clones.”
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