Charlotte Church: 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 Charlotte Church said elsewhere, not written here

A barrister, a vet or a singer.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 July 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

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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 ↗

Yvon Chouinard Founder of Patagonia

I wanted to be a fur trapper. No young kid dreams of becoming a businessman.

Recorded Robin Barton, profile, The Observer, 25 February 2007 source ↗

Kelly Hoppen

A travel agent.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 September 2024 source ↗

David Lynch Film director, screenwriter and painter

Well, my family moved to Alexandria, Virginia from Boise, Idaho when I was in the eighth grade. Pretty soon after that, one night, on the front lawn of my girlfriend’s house, I met a boy named Toby Keeler, who went to a private school. He told me his father was a painter. At first I thought he meant a house painter, but then he said, “No, fine art painter” and a bomb went off in my head. In that millisecond, I only wanted to be a painter.

Recorded Hans Ulrich Obrist, AnOther Magazine, 16 January 2025 source ↗

More from Charlotte Church

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Question If you could edit your past, what would you change? Failure & regret

Trusting some men.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 July 2022 source ↗

Question What is the worst job you have done? Craft & work

It was a double-edged sword, but being a major-label artist, I felt like a commodity, a thing to be sold.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 July 2022 source ↗

Question When were you happiest? Time & hindsight

In the first lockdown. Obviously, there was terrible grief and sadness and fear around, but there was also this reclaiming for nature. I was constantly at my allotment with the big kids and my husband.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 July 2022 source ↗