Gloria Steinem: 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 Gloria Steinem said elsewhere, not written here

First a horse rancher, then a dancer.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 March 2017 source ↗

Others on this question

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Mathew Horne English actor

I wanted to be a prosthetic makeup artist after watching A Nightmare On Elm Street.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 December 2019 source ↗

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 ↗

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 ↗

Imogen Poots

A visual artist.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 March 2024 source ↗

More from Gloria Steinem

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Question What does love feel like? Relationships

Feeling you want someone else’s welfare as much and sometimes more than your own.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 March 2017 source ↗

Question What is your greatest fear? Identity & self

Dying just a millisecond before I was about to say something I really wanted the people I love to hear.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2020 source ↗

Question What is your idea of perfect happiness? Identity & self

I’m walking down a street in New York, the sun is shining, I’m on my way to see friends who are chosen family—and I’ve just written a couple of pages that I like.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 24 September 2020 source ↗