Toyah Willcox: 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.

Toyah Willcox

English singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

A man. I have always fought against being gender specific. I just don’t like being identified as female: I’m a person.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 April 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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Julian Lennon English musician, photographer, and philanthropist

A steam train driver.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 September 2022 source ↗

Viv Albertine Australian-born British musician and writer

I had no female role models growing up. I lived an incredibly sheltered life: there was no TV at home and we had no visitors. It wasn’t until rock and pop came into my life that I concocted myself as a role model.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗

Ali Abbasi builder

I always wanted to be a pilot

Floella Benjamin British actress, presenter, and peer

A teacher. Teachers can change lives.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 February 2017 source ↗

More from Toyah Willcox

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Question What one change would most improve the quality of your daily life? Daily life

Everyone comes to me for advice, and I wish they didn’t. I negotiate fees for other artists, give advice on property, on food, on clothes, on pensions. I can be standing on a corner in another country and someone will approach me for help.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 April 2019 source ↗