Sharleen Spiteri: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

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.

Recorded Sharleen Spiteri said elsewhere, not written here

An artist, an interior designer and a vet.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 May 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

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Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

I know that for a very long time my consuming passion, which was confirmed when I contracted TB — I had TB when I was about 12 or so — was I wanted to be a physician and when I got TB I was even more determined. I want to be physician so that I can find a cure for the scourge. And, in fact, I was admitted to medical school. If we had had the funds maybe today I would have been a physician.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

Geoffrey Rush Australian actor

I dreamt of being an astronomer, I had a series of How and Why Books on the planets and the stars.

Recorded Patricia Edmonds, National Geographic, 3 February 2017 source ↗

Belinda Carlisle American singer

A travel agent, so I could see the world.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 March 2023 source ↗

Carol Vorderman

A fighter pilot.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 March 2026 source ↗