I was born a city girl, but my parents took me out to the countryside and mountains very early, only for day walks. My imagination about "the great outdoors" and faraway travel and adventure was running wild with movies and books, heaps of books. I had to wait until my early teens to go camping AT LEAST! Fell in love with that, did some summer hiking/kayaking/sailing camps.
Being a woman "backpacker" doesn't bother me at all, it's my other self, not having to bother much about the supposedly womanly behaviour, or barely the essentials.

I don't mind being dirty, if I know I can get clean soon.
I don't care about my looks as long as I'm comfortable
I'm not a house fairy, and can go with the bare minimum and without shopping
I'm not afraid of the "woods", creepers, bugs...

And I like to scare all my woman friends and relatives with horror stories about life in the wild.

Actually, many of them have some secret envy...