The question
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.
A hairdresser through the week and a star on the weekends.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 July 2026 source ↗
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.
Genuinely, the host of Radio 1’s Breakfast Show.
I just wanted to fulfil my potential.
That rather assumes I have grown up.
Alanis Morissette because, in my earlier career, she was a big influence on me and had a feistiness that you didn’t see much of in women in the industry. Also, she has been very vocal about mental health issues.
Forgetting the words to my own songs on stage. I’m a very good mumbler of my own songs. You’d be surprised how few people notice – if you smile and do it confidently, they’re none the wiser.
I worry a lot about how to juggle being a single parent and working – scheduling keeps me up at night!
Not having the ability to say sorry when they’re wrong.
Be true to yourself.
None. I’m not ashamed. I’m dyslexic so I don’t read a lot of books.
Alan Shepard, Jessica Raine, Chris Bonington, Alessia Cara, Madhur Jaffrey, Bill Nye
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