What did you want to be at five years of age?

This Friday people around the country will go to work dressed as what they wanted to be when they were five years old, to raise money for Save The Children. Our reporter asks prominent Scots what they wanted to be at that age – and whether they still do

Alan Little

BBC news special correspondent

I wanted to be an explorer. You could see the sweeping beam of the Mull of Galloway lighthouse on a dark night from my grandparents' house in Wigtownshire. I used to think about all the ships that were guided by it and wonder where they were going and where they were coming from and who was on them and how lucky they were and how excited they must be to be heading off on such travels. On a foggy night you could hear the fog horn too.

I had a little book with a picture story about the pyramids of Egypt and the Valley of the Kings. It was the most exotic thing I'd ever heard of. It had a list of all the countries of the world and their capital cities and I learned them all and looked for them on a map of the world.

Earlier this year, I drew up a list of countries I've reported from as a foreign correspondent over the past two decades. It's more than 60. Some of them didn't exist when I was a child so didn't feature on my little list: Bosnia, Tajikistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo. These days the exhilaration is often tinged with trepidation, but I still get an echo of my boyish excitement when I head off to some new and remote place.

Denise Mina

Author

With my Catholic upbringing, it's inevitable that I wanted to be a saint. To have my statue in the church seemed like the best thing ever. Later that evolved into being a missionary nun, then an evangelist nurse, then more of a movie star. I didn't really think that one through.

My faith disappeared with puberty. Then, when I was 15, I realised I wouldn't ever be an actress because I was fat and quite funny looking. I left school when I was 16 and worked in an old folks home, which I felt was quite selfless but very rewarding. I also wanted to change the world at the same time, which is why I went to law school. I was going to stand up for the disempowered. Then, after about two weeks, I realised that wasn't going to happen either. Although I no longer want to be a nun or a missionary, I have taken on quests in other forms. I think I've always needed a quest.

Tina Warren

Burlesque performer and co-founder of Club Noir

The five-year-old Tina wanted to be a fairy princess. Does that count as a job? And in my last Christmas show I actually played Fairy Princess Godmother. As I was creating my enormous dress and crinoline, complete with 4ft train and tall crown, I realised I would have killed my teddy bear for this costume when I was little. I even had a magic wand that shot glitter. I would love to wear it to a little girls' party - they are the only ones who could truly appreciate it with me.

Tomek Borkowy

Actor, co-founder of Universal Arts

Growing up in Warsaw, I wanted to be a sailor. I collected postcards of tall ships and my dad told me tales about pirates. I was immersed in historical things. And the Errol Flynn film, Captain Blood, made a big impression. It was the romance, the adventures, the fun of the stories, the thought of how I would go out and conquer the world.

Later on, before I decided to go to drama school, I thought of going into the merchant navy. But my physics and maths and geography were not so good. So I studied acting. Although I've always loved sailing and the sea, what really appealed to me was the idea of playing the part of a sailor, not the reality. I have never lived in reality these past 40 years. That's why I believe so strongly in acting. That little boy still lives in me, trying to be something else.

Deryck Walker

Fashion designer

Everything I liked as a little boy was really dreamy, like being an astronaut. I loved Star Wars and ET, anything about a being in a different place. Somewhere that wasn't Milton, on the north edge of Glasgow. Mind you, I think the real appeal of being an astronaut was the shiny stuff and the big suit.

Pauline McLean

Arts correspondent, BBC Scotland

My fuss-free, heavily recycled early birthdays - at the start of January - inspired my early desire to be a party planner. I got off to a great start with a DIY summer birthday party. Invites were scrawled on scraps of paper torn from a school jotter, but parents dropped their party dressed children off at my house. I sneaked them past my mother and into the back garden, where they were disappointed by the lack of jelly, ice-cream and cake.

Mum realised something was going on when she discovered several girls in long dresses - it was the 1970s - hanging out of trees. She threw together crisps and lemonade, phoned all the parents and returned all the presents. Today I do little in the way of party planning, but I do get invited to some very nice events, sometimes in people's gardens, sometimes at the last minute, but invariably with much better prepared food and drink.

Eilidh MacAskill

Editor of InStyle magazine

I did tap, jazz and Highland dancing, badly, but it was ballet that pulled my five-year-old heart strings. It was so glamorous yet incredibly difficult, almost magical. That mystery and discipline really appealed: ballet dancers looked like a different species. My balance wasn't that great and I stopped going to classes. Editing a fashion magazine requires the same single-minded drive as ballet. It's also about communication, beauty, talent and the creative process. And standing in very long queues for fashion shows. I've always liked the idea of suffering for your art.

Monir Mohammed

Founder Mother India restaurant chain

Growing up in the east end of Glasgow, near the Calton, it was all about football. After school, we would kick a ball, or a can, around Glasgow Green every single day. So, despite having no noticeable talent, my first ambition was to be a footballer. I didn't have a particular team in mind, although if anyone stopped to watch we would pretend they were scouts from Rangers or Celtic.

I then thought I would like to be a doctor, or an architect, but I started working in restaurants when I was 14 and that interfered with my studies. We ate very basic food at home - I remember my father buying live hens from the butcher's shop. It wasn't until I was an adult that I discovered my Punjabi culinary roots and decided to bring authentic Indian home cooking to Scotland.

Alan Bissett

Author

Even when I was five, I wanted to be a writer. Ever since I became literate I was creating stories, and I can clearly remember telling Mum that I wanted to write books one day. She asked if I'd ever want to write them for grown-ups and I made a face and said: "Ugh. No. They don't have any pictures in them!" There aren't many people who can say they got to become the thing they wanted to be when they were little. It's probably just as well I didn't want to be an astronaut, because, as far as I know, they don't have the training facilities in Falkirk.

Joanne McLeod

Founder, Brewhaha tea

I had two ambitions at age five. I wanted to be a policewoman - I liked the uniform - and I wanted to be a mum. A glamorous one, in kitten heels with my lipstick on. I pictured myself not doing very much all day, until the five minutes before my husband came in the door. Little did I know. I have achieved one out of two, which is not bad. Sadly I don't get to wear a uniform, although I have a Brewhaha T-shirt. But our company logo, a domestic goddess with big hair and a cup of tea, is not far from what I was imagining as a little girl.

Gillian Kyle

Designer of Tunnocks Teacake bags

I desperately wanted to be prime minister. I could see no impediment to what seemed to me at the time to be the most desirable job in the world. To be the boss of everything and everyone - like the omnipotent and unflappable Mrs Thatcher - was the perfect state of affairs for my five-year-old self. I feel sorry for my parents.

The desire to rule the country stayed with me throughout primary school, and only faded when teenage preoccupations took over. I also realised how much effort and sacrifice a career in politics would take, to say nothing of spin, PR, face saving damage limitation and moral and ethical compromise. Today I run my own company. I do still like being the boss.

Dave Anderson

Musician and actor

When I was five, I aspired to be my father. Doesn't everyone? It wasn't long before I wanted to be Burt Lancaster, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, maybe the odd Hollywood cowboy too. Later it was Elvis, but as a wee boy, Dad. He was athletic and heroic, just like my son is now. And I think the heroic gene skips a generation. Now I aspire to be just like my own son.

Carmen Reid

Chick-lit author

My five-year-old heart was set on ballerina stardom. I wanted the pink tutu, shiny pointe shoes, a spotlight and an hushed audience. After seeing my first professional ballet performance, I was smitten. I started lessons and practised leg and arm exercises holding on to the radiator in the hall. Until I was eight, when I decided to be a writer. Today, I still love going to the ballet, can drop a pli and, when the opportunity arises, I am first on the dancefloor.

• Save The Children's campaign No Child Born To Die aims to save the lives of millions of children who die needlessly every year before they reach the age of five. For more information and to donate go to www.savethechildren.org.uk