Alicia Vikander
Alicia Vikander

I push myself hard. I don't like pain, exactly, but as a ballerina, I lived in constant pain. At ballet school in Stockholm, I remember we had a locker where if someone had been to the doctor and gotten painkillers, we divided them among us. In a sense, we were all addicted.

Amy Smart
Amy Smart

I was a ballerina for 10 years growing up, but I stopped.

Andra Day
Andra Day

At a young age, I wanted to be a prima ballerina and had these grand ideas that I would go study at Juilliard. It's something I laugh about now.

Andreja Pejic
Andreja Pejic

I always dreamt of being a girl. One of my earliest memories is spinning around in my mom's skirt trying to look like a ballerina.

April Bowlby
April Bowlby

I wanted to be a ballerina so badly. You can be seen and take over the spotlight without speaking. I had a fear of speaking in public back then.

Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin

I guess I could've been a prima ballerina. Or a nurse. Aretha Nightingale!

Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary

I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.

Bitsie Tulloch
Bitsie Tulloch

When I was little, I wanted to be a civil engineer. Not a ballerina, not a doctor, a civil engineer. I was such a nerd.

Cat Power
Cat Power

I used to want to be a war photographer, and I used to want to be a ballerina and a comedian. I used to want to be a writer. I invalidated myself; it's a mistake for me.

Chloe Gosselin
Chloe Gosselin

I loved shoes. I had my little ballerina flats, and my mom never wore heels. But when I was about three or four, she got a job where she had to wear the tiniest heels. I was obsessed.