How would The Hobbit have been different if Bilbo was a girl?

Could you imagine The Hobbit if the main character was a girl instead of the familiar male Bilbo? One mother began reading the story with a female protagonist to her young daughter after the girl insisted that Bilbo was, in fact, a girl.

The idea is interesting and the mother argues that it’s a worthwhile exercise considering that female characters are under-represented in these sorts of stories. Maybe so, but I’d prefer to stick to the gender that the author intended. Leave it to a modern author to create a classic children’s story to take on the patriarchy.