Do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up – and have you achieved it? A study run over the past 50 years has tested what helps childhood aspirations become reality.

In 1969 when they were 11 years old, 14,000 British children were asked to write 30-minute essays predicting what they might become in the future.

As well as evidence of individual ambition, the essays offered snapshots of how the children imagined life would be when they reached 25. Many mentioned future holidays on the Moon – not surprising, as the essays were written in the same month as the first lunar landing in July 1969.

Most foresaw marriage on the horizon. No-one mentioned divorce, and the concept of co-habitation seemed almost inconceivable. As many boys as girls wrote about either getting married or having children.

“You have the girls at 11 writing not just about doing housework, but having very clear career aspirations, albeit perhaps to be a teacher or a hairdresser, but very much thinking about themselves in the world of work,” says Professor Jane Elliott of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, part of the Institute for Education which is carrying out the lifetime survey.

FIND OUT MORE When I Grow Up is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesdays from 16 February at 0930 GMT Or catch up on the iPlayer

“There is definitely an observable link between what people are aspiring to do when they are 11 years old and what they end up doing when they are older.” .. Continue Reading