Wanted to be a boy when I was younger: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Writer-actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge says in her younger years, she "desperately" wanted to be a boy.

The "Fleabag" creator said she even shaved off her hair, wore male clothing and demanded her parents call her 'Alex' when she was six.

Asked if she would have undergone gender reassignment had it been commonplace when she was a child, Waller-Bridge told NPR Radio, "I mean there's the tomboy kind of thing... I was fervent about it when I was younger.

"I just desperately wanted to be a boy more than anything else. If it had been taken seriously by my school or those options had been given to me, I probably would've jumped at it."

The writer said when she went to boarding school at the age of 11, she began asking people to call her with her real name again when she "discovered boys in a big way".

 

"I went to a boarding school for a year and a half, two years. I wasn't thinking about either being a boy or being a girl...

"And one in particular -- I remember meeting a boy and then suddenly becoming really aware that I looked sort of boyish myself and that he probably didn't like that. And that was the kind of crossover point."

Waller-Bridge said she still harbours "the same impulse" to be a male "all the time".

"I still feel more comfortable in a hoodie and jeans than I ever do in little kitten heels and a flowy skirt," she added.