The question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?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.
I was going to shave it. It went in two parts. I got a bob first but it kept falling all over my face. Then it was off, short. The main reason it was long was because my mother cut it short when I was little and I was trying to make up for that.
N/A, N/A, FixQuotes, 15 January 2026 source ↗
Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.
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.
A visual artist.
A hairdresser – I still want to be a hairdresser.
I was really vulnerable right before I left the coach, and I said to him, 'Are you still going to love me if I don't win this thing?'
I like being in the workforce; it keeps me grounded.
With Alexander's cancer, I was definitely brought to my knees for the first time because of the fear factor.
With Alexander's cancer, I was definitely brought to my knees for the first time because of the fear factor.
But I was not really planning to create what seems to be a lasting impact. I was just always about personal expression and pride in who I was as an Australian Indigenous girl. It was more about me sharing all of me with the world. But, certainly after all these years, it makes me really proud.
I don't have a lot of regrets in my life.
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