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 missionary in Africa – I think that was Sunday school-based.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 December 2025 source ↗
In 1975, I watched the film Stardust, and Adam Faith said, “I supply the birds, the pills and the pot.” And I thought, “I want that.”
When I was five, I wanted to be a cleaning lady; when I was nine, I wanted to be the world’s number one tennis player.
An astronaut. I still do.
A surgeon. I studied pre-med in Holy Cross College for four years and then I went to acting school.
Magician’s assistant on a cruise ship for two weeks when I was 19. When I was meant to be being levitated, I was silently crying while pretending to be unconscious as I hung limply off a metal pole. It was bleak.
A glow of wellbeing.
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.
You are good enough.
Serena Williams, Salman Rushdie, Daphne Guinness, Chris Hoy, Paul O'Grady, Busta Rhymes
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