Jenna Coleman
English actress
I told my mum I wanted to be a swan.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Death & what remains
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 wanted to be a cooker. Not a cook: I wanted to actually be the stove.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2019 source ↗
Others on this question
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Gregg Wallace
English broadcaster and writer
A sailor. I wanted to be in the Royal Navy like my grandad.
Sounds cliched, but I always wanted to be an actor.
Dominic Cooper
English actor
A librarian. Or a racing driver for Ferrari F1.
More from Adwoa Aboah
View profile →Nothing. Everything’s got me to this point and I had to learn lots of things. Maybe I just wouldn’t have been so terrified all the time and I would have got up a bit earlier – I missed quite a few mornings.
On a walking safari in the middle of the Kenyan bush. I had no phone, no mirror, nothing, and I was really happy because I had no distractions.
For persevering, and being a good role model.
They are already things I work on: routine and less sugar.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – everything she writes speaks to me. Her Ted talk, We Should All Be Feminists, inspired everything I do with Gurls Talk.
The whole of The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.
More on identity & self
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Julie Andrews, Pauline McLynn, Bozoma Saint John, Terry O'Neill, James Dyson, Adam Clayton
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