As confident and positive as Oakley is now, he was quite a self-conscious and painfully shy teenager. He also was probably 100 lbs soaking wet, so there's been quite a metamorphosis.

Born Annie Panda, he was an army brat who lived in many different places around the US, eventually settling in MD close to where the Sunspots lived. While he had a wonderful relationship with his father, Acorn Panda(who taught him to fly helicopters, giving him a jump in towards his dream career as a helicopter EMT.), his relationship with his mother was heavily strained, as she tended to view her own child as competition for Acorn's affection, leading to their divorce. Add dysphoria on top of that and you've got the recipe for a pretty turbulent childhood.

Oakley, who has a panic disorder, distracted himself by starting his own support podcast for queer teens, and also found solace hanging out with the rest of the Theater geeks in high school. While the rest of the school was wondering if Annie Panda even had a voice, the drama club got to witness him starting to come out of his shell, first by singing Wicked songs quietly to himself in the theater at lunch, and eventually to full on tongue-in-cheek one-man-shows. It wasn't long before he and fellow drama elective-taker Custard hit it off to the point that absolutely no one was surprised when they were married fresh out of high school. A year later, Oakley would announce his plans to physically transition, and over the course of the next four years blossomed into the sassy bucket of charisma and muscles he is today.

Throughout, Oakley's retained his particular fondness for the character Elphaba from his favorite musical, Wicked, especially with the song "Defying Gravity". That entire song serves as his inner mantra (even if he claims his personal mantra is actually the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme, which he is wont to do). If he doesn't sing it at least once a week, check him, coz' he's got a fever.

A lot of my personal inspiration for Oakley comes from my favorite drag performer, BenDeLaCreme, and her "terminally delightful" alter ego. I definitely think the Beef here represents my inner joie de vivre. I can only aspire to be that swole, though.