She's my bro

[Damien Hall]

After the final result of this series of *American Idol* had been announced on
26 May, the beaten finalist, Diana DeGarmo, said the following of the winner,
Fantasia Burrino:

"I'm so proud to have come here with Fantasia.  She's my bro."

I wondered how recent / widespread it was for women / girls to be described as
'bro', as a term of affection, connoting one with whom the speaker has been
through a lot or feels a special connection.  It's not at all common according
to the usual Google searches.

SHE + BRO turned up only one questionable use in the Google search and none in
Google Groups
SHE'S MY BRO turned up three in Google, on blogs, and none at all in Google
Groups

OED and M-W list *bro* for *brother* dating back to 1666, and M-W lists it as a
term of fellowship, but neither lists it as usable for females.

Is anyone else familiar with this?

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania