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.
A hairdresser through the week and a star on the weekends.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 July 2026 source ↗
I wanted to be in the circus.
Donny Osmond’s wife. Still do.
I was a huge daydreamer and imagined myself as a successful general leading his troops into battle.
A saint. Then a ballerina.
Alanis Morissette because, in my earlier career, she was a big influence on me and had a feistiness that you didn’t see much of in women in the industry. Also, she has been very vocal about mental health issues.
On the way here, because I was late.
None. I’m not ashamed. I’m dyslexic so I don’t read a lot of books.
I’ve enjoyed every single job, including working at my dad’s chicken shop selling potato gems (fried potato circles) to the surfer dudes.
I worry a lot about how to juggle being a single parent and working – scheduling keeps me up at night!
Be true to yourself.
Jack Davenport, Jon Sopel, Kate Humble, Esther Rantzen, Lee Child, Edward Enninful
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