Like Holly Branson, I spent years living as a boy – and it was no big deal

You know when you read or hear about something and it takes you back to a time in your life you had almost forgotten? Well, reading about Holly Branson adopting boys’ names and identifying more with the male gender during her childhood took me back to my own.

Holly, who trained as a doctor before joining her father Richard’s famous Virgin Group in 2008 as part of the leadership team, said she spent seven years wearing boys' clothes and using male names.

“At the age of four, I decided I was a boy. It wasn't that I wanted to be a boy, it was that I was a boy,” she told Natalie Pinkham on her In The Pink podcast.

“It was just after my brother was born and I don't know whether looking back on it now it was some sort of psychological thing, that a boy was born and was getting lots of attention, and I wanted to be like him. I dressed like a boy, I even gave myself different male names.”

Holly also said how lucky she was to have such accepting parents who didn’t question her decisions and let her be who she wanted to be.

Speaking on the podcast with her father and brother, Sam, she added: “This wasn't just a quick thing that stopped after a few months or years, it lasted until I was nearly 11. It was quite unusual, especially because it was nearly 40 years ago.”

I was born three years before Holly, in, whisper it, 1978, and went through a very similar ‘phase’. And, like Holly, I also think my brother’s influence played a big part.

Growing up with an older brother and sister, I was definitely more drawn to the more 'boyish' things my brother, Charlie, liked. I was a classic ‘tomboy’ and found Star Wars, Indiana Jones, climbing trees, fishing and playing Chucky Egg or Pac Man on my brother’s Atari infinitely more appealing than painting my nails, going shopping or watching Cinderella.

I also remember having quite a crush on a boy called Jonathan, although I didn't really know what that feeling was at the time. I knew I wanted to be more like him so I insisted on my parents calling me Jonathan - which lasted for a good few years.

I was around five years old when it began and I even signed several Christmas cards ‘lots of love from Jonathan.’ Just as well my parents didn’t keep them!

Looking back, it seems pretty unusual for the 80s. I certainly didn’t have any friends who identified more with boys or used a boy’s name, although I do remember George from Enid Blyton’s Famous Five being one of my early heroines. And as everyone already mostly called me George, I already had a boys’ name anyway.

I am grateful that my parents, like the Branson’s, didn’t make a big deal out of things. I don’t think my Mum so much as raised an eyebrow at the time. They just went with it.

My Mum dutifully cut my hair short which, apart from one cruel history teacher drawing an amusing and hurtful comparison to my likeness to the Roundheads while we were studying the English Civil War, led to me being picked to play Laurie Lee in the school production of Cider with Rosie. I was then around 11 and I think it was about then, like Holly, that I grew out of this phase. Which was probably just as well as I then went to an all girls' school.

I don’t remember what the turning point was exactly but watching Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink might have had something to do with it.

I am reluctant to enter into a discussion about the gender identification debate, now such a contentious subject, but I am aware that that sort of thing might be treated quite differently now - by parents, schools and society at large. For me, it was very much an experimental phase and not something I ever gave any serious thought to.

On reflection, I probably realised quite early on that being a girl could put you at a disadvantage and that not wanting to wear dresses, have long hair or look pretty put me in a slightly different category. Perhaps it was the same for Holly Branson.

Now tipped to take over from Sir Richard when he retires, she certainly hasn’t let her gender hold her back. And she has revived a fond memory of Jonathan, the boy from my childhood who never grew up.