"I was a tomboy, and I didn't have a bunch of brothers, but I always wanted them, and so I sort of adopted a few of my great friends to be my brother"
About this Quote
The verb choice does the real work. She “wanted” brothers, then “adopted” them. That’s not sentimentality; it’s agency. Wilde turns family from biology into curation, suggesting friendship can be engineered into a chosen kinship structure when the original blueprint didn’t include it. It’s a quietly modern move: intimacy as something you build on purpose, with people who fit, rather than something you’re simply assigned.
The subtext also nods to how women in public-facing industries learn to assemble safety and steadiness. Calling close male friends “brother” is both affectionate and boundary-setting: it signals trust without romance, closeness without the constant cultural pressure to sexualize cross-gender relationships. In a celebrity ecosystem that treats every friendship like a potential headline, “brother” becomes a way to keep something personal from being turned into plot.
Quote Details
| Topic | Friendship |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Wilde, Olivia. (2026, February 17). I was a tomboy, and I didn't have a bunch of brothers, but I always wanted them, and so I sort of adopted a few of my great friends to be my brother. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-a-tomboy-and-i-didnt-have-a-bunch-of-97676/
Chicago Style
Wilde, Olivia. "I was a tomboy, and I didn't have a bunch of brothers, but I always wanted them, and so I sort of adopted a few of my great friends to be my brother." FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-a-tomboy-and-i-didnt-have-a-bunch-of-97676/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I was a tomboy, and I didn't have a bunch of brothers, but I always wanted them, and so I sort of adopted a few of my great friends to be my brother." FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-a-tomboy-and-i-didnt-have-a-bunch-of-97676/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.







