I’ve pooed myself a couple of times.
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Years ago, I was trying to get with one of the big agencies and I cobbled together a VHS tape of me in adverts and sobbing in The Bill, and took it United Agents for the attention of Dallas Smith. A week later I went back and said, “Has she looked at the tape?” And they were, like, “Dallas is a he, no he hasn’t and he doesn’t want to,” and handed it back to me.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 December 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →Falling flat on my face in Billy Elliot on Boxing Day when I was 14. I fell smack bang at the end of my number. I was mortified.
Meghan Trainor
American singer-songwriter
When I was 11, I went down a water slide and my bottoms didn’t go with me. Everyone saw my bare white butt.
When I concentrate, I put my thumb in my mouth. I once did it during a really important meeting when asked a question I didn’t know the answer to. When I left the meeting my friend said: “What did you put your thumb in your mouth for?” I didn’t know I’d done it.
More from Sarah Hadland
View profile →Lemn Sissay. What happened to him and what he’s done with his life is extraordinary.
Laziness, lack of empathy, lack of humour.
“You’ll never, ever work.” When you are young and full of hopes and dreams it’s devastating. I am just grateful that I thought: “Well, I’m going to try.”
If there could be a double of me to look after my child when I’m working.
A glow of wellbeing.
Very impatient, bossy, always late.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Tom Allen, Edmund Hillary, Minnie Driver, Richard Eyre, Edward Enninful, John Simm
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject