Well, I spent my entire childhood prowling streets and woods, climbing trees and roofs, fighting with boys sometimes older than me, which I managed to lead, more or less, because I was the stories-teller and the one who was able to imagine for them the spies / detectives / corsairs / cossaks / musketeers / templars adventures we used to play together in our very free free-time. There were one or two other girls of the same ilk but I am now aware that for us the female part of mankind was just...inexistent. My readings was made only of boys books (with a lot of classic literature, though) and I don't think I ever indentified myself with a female character (or only with very boyish ones). When I started to write fiction (it wasn't a success; I'm decidedly not a writer), for the first time, I tried to insert myself in a female body and mind; it was awkward and un-natural to me but I realised that the feeling was the same with men characters. Seems now I'm not more male than female. Not very helpful to create fiction characters!