Gwen's parents were a teenage romance, and eloped together when her mother, Carolyn fell pregnant. Gwen's mother was the absolute stereotype of 'that overly feminine and pretty girl'. The type of girl who cares more about makeup and fashion than anything else, and is instantly attracted to the exact type of person that Gwen's father Jacob, was. Jacob, was the typical high-school jock, and so it was probably fate that Carolyn and him fell in love.
They were perfectly suited for each other, Young, good looking and naive. This, naturally, ended up in Carolyn's pregnancy. Ten years later, they are both far more responsible, and they have jobs, a house, a child and a mortgage, everything needed to be a perfectly average family. Carolyn was a Pokemon coordinator. Unsurprisingly, her interest in fashion and beauty had started her down this path, and although she wasn't world-renowned, she was relatively successful, and earned more than her husband.
Jacob was a miner, manual labor was one of the few options available to him. He wasn't unintelligent, but having eloped with Carolyn before he had earned the qualifications that he wanted; not a lot of places would hire him.
Carolyn, once she had realized that her daughter was not interested in either beauty or makeup did not spend much time with Gwen and she was often away from home for long periods at a time, whilst she competed in various competitions. Jacob worked long days, often from dawn until dusk. This raised the problem of Gwen, a 10 year old girl who wanted nothing more than to be a Pokemon trainer, [This is not an uncommon dream for a 10 year old child, after all.] being left at home, alone, all day.
It was because of this, that Jacob had arranged for Gwen to spend her days at the local Pokemon research center. He would pay the owner of the center a small sum of money, and in return Gwen would be able to spend her days at the center. Of course, she was more of a hindrance to the researchers, but the head researcher Professor Ajax, took pity on her and let her help him with whatever he needed doing.
Over time, she actually became quite useful.
It was not a famous laboratory such as some of the facilities in the big cities, but it was a place for Gwen to be around Pokemon, and to her it was the greatest thing in the world.
The tasks she was given were menial and simplistic, however, after five years of pouring feed bags into troughs, helping to round up the Pokemon that lived at the center, avidly watching everything professor Ajax did, and on the rare occasion, tagging along on field research, Gwen knew that she no longer wished to be a Pokemon trainer. She was going to be a Pokemon professor. One day she would have her own laboratory, and she would be developing the newest most effective Pokemon medicine, or discovering an entirely new species of Pokemon. Delusions of grandeur aside, she simply wanted to do something useful.
It was at the Research lab that she met her closest friend. In fact she probably saved her life. Her friend was, of course, not a human.
On her way to the research lab one morning, she came across an unconscious Pokemon. It was an almost lifeless Poochyena pup.
The pup was probably the runt of the litter, and had been driven off by its siblings and left to die. At Least that was what Gwen gathered as Professor Ajax calmly explained to her later on. Gwen had run all the way to the lab, through the front door and right up to the elderly professor shouting the entire time, cradling the pup in her arms. The professor instantly took the weak Pokemon and gave it a check over. He was of course, qualified to administer first aid to any Pokemon that needed it; that was part of his job. It took a good deal longer before Gwen was calm enough to talk to the professor, and only once he had informed her that the Poochyena was going to be perfectly fine, did she stop sobbing and collect herself fully.
Professor Ajax explained to her that this was not uncommon amongst canine Pokemon, where the pups have to fight for the mothers attention and food. During the next few weeks Gwen had taken it upon herself to look after the Poochyena and the two quickly developed a close bond.
Once the baby Pokemon had been fully rehabilitated, Professor Ajax told Gwen that the Pokemon could not be released back into the wild. Dismayed she asked why, and the Professor simply responded "She is no longer a wild Pokemon, I'm entrusting her to you."
Secretly, the Professor was doing this as much for Gwen's sake as the Pokemons sake, he knew that Gwen was lonely, and he understood how much she loved Pokemon.
Gwen was overjoyed as was the small Poochyena.
She sent off her application to the Pokemon Trainer Academy herself, in the hope that the famous Professor Gary Oak would understand the need for pokemon researchers.
She was granted a chance to take the entrance exam on the condition that she also studied to become at least, a decent trainer. She was told this was because "To become a successful pokemon professor, one must understand pokemon fully, not simply from the perspective of a scientist. To to this, you must become an accomplished pokemon trainer. You will learn more than books could ever teach you."
Skepticism of anything that could be greater than literature aside, she was ecstatic, this was a dream come true; a chance to really study pokemon, and at the famous Oak Pokemon Academy, no less.
