Viv Albertine: 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 Viv Albertine said elsewhere, not written here

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.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 192 →

Jack Davenport

Not a child, which was short-sighted of me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

Gino D'Acampo Italian-British celebrity chef and media personality

I wanted to be a footballer at first, like any other Neapolitan kid.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 December 2022 source ↗

Mario Molina Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995

For me, it was just a thrill. I just remember thinking at that time, this is the sort of thing I would like to do, if I could. I did not come from a family of scientists. My father was a lawyer, my older brother was a lawyer.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Sun Valley, Idaho, 29 June 1996 source ↗

Anne Enright Novelist and short-story writer

When I was seven I wanted to be a nun. When I was eight, I wanted to be a boy so that I could be anything I wanted. Also, of course, I wanted to be Samantha in Bewitched.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 September 2024 source ↗

More from Viv Albertine

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Question What song would you like played at your funeral? Death & what remains

I am going straight to cremation like David Bowie, so there would be no funeral.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗

Question What does love feel like? Relationships

It’s like digging a field together: it’s hard work, not very glamorous, but you can stand back and think, “We did that.”

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗

Question Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? Failure & regret

I wish I’d told my mother that, in all the years I knew her, she was never once boring. We weren’t demonstrative, so that would have meant that I loved her.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗