Identity & self

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

232 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.

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Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 6 Arts and letters 184 Politics and public life 16 Business and finance 10 Technology 3 Sport 12
Read by age Any age Before thirty 3 In their thirties 33 In their forties 36 In their fifties 50 In their sixties 43 Seventy and beyond 25
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Roger Allam English actor
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.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 June 2017 source ↗
Louis Walsh Irish music manager and television personality
I just wanted to work in music. I didn’t want a real job.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 September 2017 source ↗
Harriet Walter English actress
An actor. When I was really young, I wanted to be a fishmonger’s wife.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 December 2017 source ↗
Griff Rhys Jones British actor and comedian
An actor. Then I grew out of that and became one by default. Or sort of one: “Not really an actor”, said Michael Billington.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 December 2017 source ↗
Jenny Agutter English actress
When I was very little, I thought it might be possible to be an angel.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 January 2018 source ↗
Adrian Edmondson English actor, comedian, musician and writer
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.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗
Toyah Willcox English singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter
A man. I have always fought against being gender specific. I just don’t like being identified as female: I’m a person.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 April 2019 source ↗
Robert Bathurst English theatre and television actor
Wimbledon champion. I won the title frequently when playing against a pebbledash wall at home in Ireland.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 June 2020 source ↗
Ian Rankin Scottish crime writer
In my teens, an accountant. In my 20s, either a rock star or a novelist.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 October 2020 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 ↗
Joan Jett American singer, songwriter and guitarist
An astronaut, an archaeologist, an actor, and a musician.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 November 2020 source ↗
Rosanna Arquette American actress
A ballet dancer, and for a while I wanted to teach children with Down’s syndrome.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2021 source ↗

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