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.

Others on this question

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Dawn O'Porter British writer, director, and television presenter
A drunk woman who threw epic dinner parties.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 August 2026 source ↗
Ahmed Zewail Chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1999
But I had decided that science is really the thing…It is what I wanted. Exactly.
Recorded Heidi Aspaturian, Caltech Oral History Project, Caltech Archives Oral History Project, 2015 source ↗
Alain de Botton Writer and philosopher; founder of The School of Life
At 12, I wanted to be an architect, at 18, a writer, and now, at forty, an architect again. I’m powerfully drawn to everything related to building, but I also love ideas. These are my two passions.
Recorded John Purcell, Ten Terrifying Questions, The Booktopian, 6 February 2012 source ↗

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