Cosmonaut or vet, princess or pilot? What calling did you want to pursue as a child? Did your dream come true?
What do today's kids want to be when they grow up?
On their very own holiday—June 1, Children's Day in Bulgaria—it's time for the results of a curious survey.
The Digital Stories series on children's encounter with technology gathered important perspectives on many subjects, along with a survey of what parents and relatives of children up to age 11 think about each of them. I've already written about the fascinating results, but not about how parents answered one question that I consider rather special. Of the 350 people who took part in the survey, 289 chose to answer:
What do the children want to be when they grow up?
“Influencer” or “doctor”—which do you think turned out to be the most common answer?
How are kids' dreams changing?
What does that say about us adults, about technology, about the spirit of the times?
Doctor and/or Superhero
So, the winners—the most frequently mentioned future professions—are, for me at least, quite unexpected. Doctor or teacher! In one form or another, they account for more than 15 percent of the answers.
Why, and how? Against the backdrop of the big problems these professions face and the undeniable need for drastic reform in both the education and the healthcare systems, they are the ones children mention most often. Wonderful news! Whether it's down to the values parents instill, to the care of teachers in kindergartens and the early grades, or to the right picture books. Each of the two professions is mentioned 26 times. Let's hope their enthusiasm doesn't fade and we'll have a solution to the staff shortages in both fields (I wonder how many practicing GPs will be left by the time these kids graduate?).
Vet is the third most common calling, with 18 mentions. That's easy to explain with children's love of animals.
Architect (9 mentions) and artist (8) make the top ten, alongside police officer (8) and firefighter (6). The forces of law and order also appear in more eccentric combinations—one child declared that they want to be “a firefighter, a police officer, a taxi driver, a pilot and a superhero.” Dreams have no limits, especially when you're 5 (and they shouldn't afterward either, but that's another subject).
These statistics come alongside the answers of more than 90 percent of parents, who, in another question in the survey, said their children will most likely have to change professions at least a few times.
The Cosmonaut Princess
Speaking of versatility, one mother says of her 6-year-old son that “he wants to be a footballer/skier/tennis player/musician—all at once, because he does all of them now.”
In the survey we find a few princesses (2 girls declared this, one of them in combination with a teaching career).
In my day, last century, perhaps the most common answer to the question that brings us together today would have been “cosmonaut.” And despite my worry that it wouldn't show up in the survey at all, at a time when space exploration is far from a frequent guest in public discourse, I was pleasantly surprised. Six children dream of being cosmonauts or astronauts.
Some have even bolder dreams, such as “astrophysicist, astronaut, potential settler of other planets” or “the first architect on Mars.”
Here's hoping!
Another young man has devised an even more original schedule for his future—he'll be a cosmonaut and, “when he's on Earth, a firefighter.”
Study Hard, Kiddo,…
There's no shortage of ambitious claims like “Olympic swimming champion.” And where do parents' interventions fit in against this backdrop? “I'd really like him to start out as a musician, and in the future he'll find himself,” reads one of the answers. Others: “whatever the child wishes” and “whatever she chooses, we're a supporting factor.”
Callings like paleontologist and astrophysicist appear. The answers “dancer” and “actress” (the latter combined with being a driver, no less) come up only once each. Same with “fashion model” or “model,” though on the other hand there are three future fashion designers.
Of course, we can't escape technological influences. Although they don't dominate the survey, professions like YouTuber and gamer also turn up among the answers. One of them reads: “footballer, YouTuber, programmer.” Writing code in the morning, training in the afternoon, streaming games in the evening… sounds exhausting, but not when you're 10.
Speaking of programmers and footballers… they come up equally often! Each of the two callings is mentioned 7 times. Perhaps by the time these kids grow up, the first profession will be even rarer than the cosmonaut's, but the future will tell.
The answer “engineer” appears another 5 times—including as a person “who invents machines, mostly for cleaning the sea.” Or “a construction bioengineer who wants to make buildings with walls of plants, and bypass rivers and forests around cities.” The same child adds that they also want to be “a lawyer for animals.” We have one future “operator of an asphalt paver. Or at least of a road roller.”
Pretty interesting, wouldn't you say?
Sports and Music
A lawyer is mentioned only once (and it's that same lawyer “for animals”); we have no banker, businessman or entrepreneur.
Journalism (for some reason, that was my answer as a kid) appears only once, and specifically as a radio host.
It's worth looking at how things stand compared with real research worldwide. It turns out that Bulgarian children (or at least those of this site's readers) choose “influencer” professions much less often (for now) than their peers in the West.
In an international 2019 study among children aged 8 to 12, conducted by LEGO, almost 30 percent in the US and the UK named “vlogger/YouTuber” as their dream job, while only 11 percent wanted to become astronauts. In China, it's the other way around—more than half of the children there dream of space (hardly just because YouTube isn't accessible behind the “Great Firewall”).
Another 2025 study among older children—aged 12 to 15—shows a similar picture in the US: about a third want to be YouTubers, and a fifth TikTok stars.
Whether it's a matter of cultural differences—traditional professions are respected here—or parents simply aren't quick to count “influencer” as a serious answer… I can't tell you, but the results certainly make me happy.
One dad asks: “He wants to become a YouTuber—is that a profession? Which school teaches it? NATFIZ?”—Bulgaria's National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts.
Director of a Waterfall
Brothers and sisters often have ambitions pointing in different directions. “One will have a farm, and the other will make robots for the farm.” “One wants to work with people, the other with modern technology.” “My 3-year-old daughter wants to be a doctor who treats kittens, and my son, who's 2, wants to be a dinosaur.”
“Lucrative”—that's the profession one parent tersely named. “One that makes him happy and financially independent.” “Imaginary—one that requires no effort and pays a high salary,” reads another answer. I'll leave the comments to you.
“A completely wrongly posed question. The child should strive to solve problems—their own and other people's… All professions are temporary, but problem-solving is a skill for life,” says one parent.
I, on the other hand, like the question and think it's important, and it certainly doesn't get in the way of solving problems. No argument: the world is changing so fast that the professions of the future may not have been invented yet, and perhaps it's more important to teach children how to learn, how to be creative. How to be human.
And not to give up on their dreams.
