So Forest is an OC I created fairly recently; I first came up with him back in April 2020.
He had only a few specific characteristics at that point(green hair & freckles, trans & gender non-conforming) and those stayed consistent as I ended up developing him more as the years went by.
Around 2021, I made an AU of with him & other OCs, and that gave me the chance to flesh him out a bit more.
I made him Black & Iranian(his dad is Afro-Latino & his mom is Iranian), I gave him more curlier hair & let his roots show a bit, and I expanded more on his interpersonal traits to try & expand his backstory a bit.
Short backstory summary: he was someone who had struggled with his identity growing up & had a hard time making friends(in part due to undiagnosed autism), so he ended up keeping to himself at times. In 7th grade, he met Liana, who instantly befriended him & she was his first best friend. Over time, his friend group grew & so did his confidence in himself. During high school, he started to dress in a more alternative/punk-ish fashion, since he didn't feel comfortable wearing "typical" feminine clothes; this was also when he started dying his hair.
After high school & entering college, he realized a couple things about himself:
He's transgender(once he became aware of that, he felt a bit more comfortable dressing femininely, now that he understands the distinction between gender identity & gender presentation)
He's demisexual; he's had a few FWBs in college, but only with people he's felt comfortable with & close to(prior to this, he thought he was just bisexual, but biromantic is more fitting for him now)
He's in love with Liana; this one was a bit difficult to accept cause some of his insecurities about relationships & himself made him feel unsure about taking his relationship with her to that level. Eventually he does tell her how he feels....about a year or two after graduating college.
Forest has become a very precious OC for me since I first made him; I got to explore some of my thoughts & feelings on sexuality, gender identity & presentation through him.
I also feel more confident with his design over the years, I like how I've given him some of my own personal traits & have that reflected within him. And I've made a bunch of AUs with him to for fun & I've got so many already!
He's been a big creative inspiration for me for my art & writing, and I'm really glad this character I made on a whim became very important to my craft & my life!!
I hope to create more stuff with him soon!!