Identity & self

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

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.

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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 2 Arts and letters 164 Politics and public life 14 Business and finance 4 Technology 1 Sport 9
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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Ivan Lendl Czech and American tennis player
I always wanted to play tennis. Otherwise, I always thought it would be fun to do something in mathematics or physics.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 July 2017 source ↗
Chris Hoy British track cyclist, 1994–2013
Scotland’s rugby captain. My hero Gavin Hastings was captain when he came to our school for a training session when I was 10 or 11. I met him and was blown away.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 February 2018 source ↗
Johanna Konta British tennis player
When I was five, I wanted to be a cleaning lady; when I was nine, I wanted to be the world’s number one tennis player.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 June 2018 source ↗
Mo Farah British track and field athlete
A mechanic when I was a little kid, and then, when I came to the UK, I wanted to play professional football.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2019 source ↗

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