Hayden Panettiere Was a Tomboy  7/27/07

Actress Hayden Panettiere is stunned to find herself a Hollywood sex symbol, because she started life as a tomboy.

The Heroes star, 17, has quickly become a regular feature in men's magazines and an object of adolescent male's desires.

But a few years ago she was wearing boy's clothes and playing football with the opposite sex.

Panettiere says, "I was the one saying, 'C'mon, let's play football!', and my brother Jansen, who's five years younger, was the most delicate one. I remember going to school one day, looking at the boy beside me and saying, 'Oh, I have those trousers.'

"He said, 'I'll never wear them again.' I told him, 'Don't worry - I shop in the boys' section."