195 answers answered between 1930 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A
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.
Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.
When I was growing up I wanted to be a minister. I wanted to preach.
Huckleberry Finn.
A teacher. Teachers can change lives.
When I was a child, it was a bus driver or engine driver; then, when I was a teenager, I went to the theatre and wanted to be an actor.
I just wanted to work in music. I didn’t want a real job.
A vet, but then I discovered you needed qualifications.
An actor. When I was really young, I wanted to be a fishmonger’s wife.
An actor. Then I grew out of that and became one by default. Or sort of one: “Not really an actor”, said Michael Billington.
When I was very little, I thought it might be possible to be an angel.
A baseball pitcher.
I dreamed of being an artistic skater. And a nursery nurse.
A professional footballer.
I only ever wanted to be an actor or a rock star. I was suspended from school in the sixth form and allowed back only when I promised to join the army. But I lied.
A man. I have always fought against being gender specific. I just don’t like being identified as female: I’m a person.
A psychologist and then a diplomat.
Archaeologist, pop star, store cashier.
Wimbledon champion. I won the title frequently when playing against a pebbledash wall at home in Ireland.
In my teens, an accountant. In my 20s, either a rock star or a novelist.
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.
An astronaut, an archaeologist, an actor, and a musician.