Gloria Estefan: As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

The question

As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Gloria Estefan

Cuban-American singer and songwriter

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

A psychologist and then a diplomat.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 June 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 197 →

Eleanor Tomlinson English actress

I wanted to be a vet, and then realised it’s only really dogs that I adore, and if someone had a poorly mouse, I would be the one needing medical assistance.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 May 2024 source ↗

Alice Munro My favorite writer is Alice Munro—all of her books. She’s a tremendous writer and has taught me so much about writing.

As a child, Munro was constantly telling herself stories. One of the first was “The Little Mermaid,” by Hans Christian Anderson, whose ending she couldn’t bear.

Recorded Andrea Walker, The New Yorker, 4 October 2008 source ↗

Anne Enright Novelist and short-story writer

When I was seven I wanted to be a nun. When I was eight, I wanted to be a boy so that I could be anything I wanted. Also, of course, I wanted to be Samantha in Bewitched.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 September 2024 source ↗

Jessica Brown Findlay English actress

A ballet dancer. I danced from age two to 19. Giving up was not a choice; I had complications in an ankle operation.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 March 2021 source ↗