Forget what you think you know - Winnie the Pooh was actually a girl

*mind blown*

Words by Jadie Troy-Pryde

Winnie the Pooh fans will think they know everything there is to know about the friendly little bear with the red t-shirt (and probably use these Winnie the Pooh quotes in their every day lives), but it turns out that there is, in fact, something quite important that we didn't know.

While A.A. Milne's iconic character has been a part of millions of children's (and adults) lives for almost a hundred years - but did you know that Winnie was actually a girl?

Many remember Winnie as a softly-spoken British boy with a hankering for honey, but it turns out that she's actually been a girl all along.

How has this only just come to light? Well a picture book called Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear unveils the how Winnie actually came to be.

A. A. Milne's story version Winnie was named after a Canadian black bear at London Zoo, called Winnipeg. A man called Lieutenant Harry Colebourn bought Winnipeg for $20 during the First World War, and they quickly became inseparable, but when his unit was posted in France he was forced to hand the bear over to London Zoo.

Luckily, Winnie soon found another BFF in the form of Christopher Robin, who would regularly come and see the bear at London Zoo. Christopher went on to name his bear Winnie, and of course the story of what his dad, A. A. Milne, did next is history (and also coincidently depicted in Hollywood movie, Goodbye Christopher Robin).

Fans have, of course, taken to Twitter to express their shock.

So there you have it - the original Winnie was actually a girl.

What do you make of that?