Whitney Angela O'Dowd was meant to be the last child born to Master Sergeant Declan O'Dowd and his wife, Nadja in Qatar in 1989. The military family now had two boys and two girls; it was perfect symmetry. Her status as the youngest child came to an end when she was in elementary school, making her the fourth born out of five - no longer remarkable when it came to her siblings. Whitney learned at an early age that good behavior and excellent school work helped her at home and off the base when the O'Dowd children bounced from country to country, from school to school. She was a quick learner and a book worm, a little bit of an apple polisher but that was overshadowed by the glow of having lived in several different countries before she hit puberty. Whitney was more than happy to tell her classmates what it was like to live in Portugal and Norway when she stepped foot on United States soil.
So, there was a certain cache at school to being the class army brat. Always the new girl, always the interesting one with great stories to tell. Whitney never let it show in school that sometimes it could be lonely to have to pick up and leave the friends she had made. Those outbursts would be reserved for home and went into full blown tantrums, often causing her siblings to roll their eyes at her until their father got her to snap out of it. Whitney knew better than to disrespect her father and the hard sacrifices he made for his family and country. Soon enough, it was Andy who started acting out and Whitney knew she had to buck up and quit it with the dramatics. She tried her best to follow Caroline's optimistic go with the flow perspective about their situation but it proved challenging.
Academics were where Whitney shined. She worked hard to bring home good grades in order not to incur the wrath that she had seen her parents display towards her older brother for being a troublemaker once he hit puberty. Whitney was determined to be the shining star of the family. She was a model student, motivated to stand out as such in her quintet of siblings although she didn't aspire for big name colleges in academia or drama. It took her long enough to adopt her older sister's more optimistic attitude towards their transient lifestyle but Whitney looked it at as an exciting challenge: another school where she could shine in the spotlight. Some of her classmates were rubbed the wrong way by her take charge attitude and acting like she owned the place when she first step foot in the hallways of their schools. She had never been one to sulk over her circumstances. She respected her father enough to stop giving him grief when she hit her preteen years although she did pitch a fit when her dad got the call he was being relocated days before the student government election was about to take place. What Whitney enjoyed most was working for the school newspaper and the morning announcements. As a constant newcomer with no "experience" or status, Whitney was often made to write puff pieces and report the weather on the morning announcements. She tried to make the best of it but it was challenging when she'd finally gain some status and then be forced to ship off to a new school.
Whitney finally gained her stability when she step foot on campus at Arizona State University. She joined a sorority and the honor society all while maintaining an exemplary GPA and a well rounded social life. Whitney knew she wanted to do something with her love for broadcast journalism and combined it with her love of science eventually, double majoring in journalism and environmental sciences with dreams and hopes of being a meterologist. It may have seemed silly to some but Whitney was far more interested in being a pretty face on the screen who predicted the seven day forecast.
After graduation, Whitney moved once again to Oregon for a job offer where she met her future husband while out with her friends. They were married in 2012 after a six month, whirlwind courtship that raised the eyebrows of her family members as Whitney was usually a woman with a plan. A year later, Whitney was offered a job at a news station in Anaheim and the couple moved to Orange County and were finally able to afford their dream home and live in the lap of luxury - mostly thanks to her husband's family money. The fairy tale marriage started to lose its shine and Whitney found herself in the process of a divorce at the end of 2014, resigning herself to live with her sister after she lost the house thanks to her husband's cutthroat lawyer.
Whitney doesn't believe that she's overstayed her welcome with Caroline and now Andy as she's always lending a helping hand although it's often her way or the highway. Besides, she's never liked living alone. She and her husband are still seperated and still fighting over assets and thanks to her own inheritance from her grandmother, Whitney can afford to throw money at her lawyer to try to get what she thinks is rightfully hers.