The question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I wanted to have one part of my social media that was just for me to post pictures. If you like it, you can like it. If not, I don't have to know that you don't like it because people have a lot of opinions, which is fine, but I think there's a difference between having an opinion and just being mean for no reason.
Ella Cerón, Teen Vogue, 15 June 2018 source ↗
Trying to exercise authority over one.
Complacent stupidity.
I don't like people who are selfish.
Needless aggression and bullying.
I'm most proud of maintaining my sense of identity, you know, because I had a lot of success, and the whole whirlwind sort of happened during very formative years for me,
This is something I still have to learn and figure out because I'm not perfect at it yet — but I've learned that just even something as simple as breathing properly can be a really nice form of meditation. Also talking to people about it. I started going to therapy, which has been really helpful just to get it out. Of course for me as a songwriter, writing helps. So does taking things a day at a time and stopping to just breathe because I'm a person who really thinks so far in advance all the time.
Of course you start to question yourself and ask “Is this really the right thing?” but my gut feeling always seems to lead me in the right direction and I just knew I needed to do this.
Yeah, I think I would’ve talked to people more and learned more. Throughout my high school years I was very quiet, I didn’t have many friends. I distanced myself from a lot of people. I don’t know why, I don’t really think there was a particular reason, just my personality—I didn’t really try to make friends or talk to people outside of the two people that I talked to, you know what I mean? I would’ve definitely tried to make more friends and not worry what people would think of me if I talked to them. And learn a lot more, ask more questions, and absorb as much as I could. I definitely tried, but I don’t know if tried hard enough.
People think that to be a pop star you have to look a certain way. I want to show people that there’s an alternative.
The only concert I’ve ever really been to was (to see) a prepubescent Justin Bieber many years ago. I remember looking into the crowd. It felt like every girl wanted to be on stage because they wanted to just touch Justin Bieber…. All the girls wanted to be with him, I feel, but I just wanted to be him in that moment.
Rita Moreno, Charlotte Church, John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, Bryn Terfel, Fran Healy
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