Updated 07:44 PM EDT, Thu, May 02, 2024

Winnie the Pooh is a Canadian Girl?

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Our childhood just simply got ruined when a book entitled "Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear" claimed that our favorite Winnie the Pooh is indeed a female. And, she's not just a simple girl, but a Canadian one not a British as we once thought.

According to Huffington Post, the fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear was named after a black bear "Winnie." The bruin was named after the Canadian city Winnipeg but lived at the London Zoo.

The whole story of Winnie the Pooh was outlined in the new children's book by Lindsay Mattick. In fact, the author was the great-granddaughter of Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, the veterinarian who bought Winnie as a cub during the World War I.

The soldier just paid $20 to buy the bear and instantly brought her along on his travels. Winnie became the mascot of his regiment, unfortunately, he left her in London when he was deployed in France with his unit.


Since then, Metro News reported that the bear had a frequent visitor by a boy named Christopher Robin accompanied by his father A.A. Milne.

"Harry truly did intend to bring her home once the war was finished, but history had another plan in mind," Mattick told Historica Canada. "A.A. Milne, the author and his son, Christopher Robin, used to go to the zoo all the time. And while Christopher Robin was there, I think in his experience with Winnie."

"And she being this very unique and friendly bear that he had this very personal and intimate connection with, he ended up naming his stuffed bear after Winnie," she further explained. Mattick explained that she chose to write the real story behind Winnie the Pooh for her son Cole, who is actually named after her great-grandfather, to: " [show how] the impact [of] one small, loving gesture can have."

"Every so often, you become aware that a fictional story has an equally beautiful, real and true story behind it -- and that doesn't happen every day," she said.

"I think that the part of this story that always spoke the most to me was the fact that when Harry made that decision [over] 100 years ago to buy Winnie, to buy a bear cub because he loved animals and because he felt it would bring some joy to his regiment, he just had no idea that this very simple act was going to have this massive unexpected ripple effect."

Watch the Winnipeg connection to Winnie the Pooh in a video made by The National:

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