Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Girl Detective

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For our launch, Double X approached a number of women we admire—actors, writers, Supreme Court justices, athletes—and asked them to answer the question, "Who did you want to be when you grew up?" You might be surprised at some of the answers. They range from guilty pleasures close to home (the domestic goddess Donna Reed) to Olympian heroines of ancient times (the Greek goddess Athena). Check out the answers from Amanda Peet, Dominique Dawes, Jane Smiley and others here (or in slideshow form here). We'll be publishing more responses this week.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice

Amelia Earhart or Nancy Drew in my grade school dreams; Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, or Beverly Sills in young adult reveries. Having grown up in the Joe McCarthy era (early 1950s), when our country was losing touch with its most fundamental values—the right to think, speak, write without government oversight—I was moved by lawyers who stood up for the rights of others.

Ranked a sparrow not a robin by grade school teachers, a career as a great diva was not in the cards for me. But almost all law schools were open to women by 1956, the year I began to study law. Of course, in those now-ancient days, many legal employers were unwilling to hire women. And despite high grades, not a single law firm in New York City was willing to take a chance on me. (Not only was I a woman, I was also the mother of a 4-year-old daughter.) So I worked at the law in other ways—mainly teaching and volunteering as a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. What would I be today had I faced no closed doors when looking for a job in 1959? A retired partner in a sizable law firm! What seems to be ill fortune when encountered sometimes turns out to be a great stroke of luck.

Michelle Rhee, chancellor of D.C. public schools

I never actually knew who I wanted to be until I was older. My parents say I was always more focused on what I wanted to do. My dad (a doctor) often took me to the hospital for his weekend rounds, and I loved to be at the nurses' station. Everybody was constantly moving, and I loved the energy and effort of the staff so much that I pretended I worked there.

When I started teaching, I was not driven by a long-term plan but by the challenge of producing results with kids who had been written off as unable. I loved getting them fired up to show what they could learn and do. It sparked a deeper interest in education, and I wanted to do bigger work with school systems where kids weren't getting what they needed. But even then I didn't see myself running a school system. (When I met Mayor Fenty and saw how committed he was to real reform, I changed my mind.) What I love about my work now is that it takes that same high energy, shared effort, and purpose that I loved about hospital visits with my father.

Judith Martin, Miss Manners

One day when I was a little girl with blonde ringlets, my father said, "I can picture you as an old lady, wearing high collars and a bun and tyrannizing over future generations."

And I thought to myself, "My daddy understands me."

Linda Greenhouse, journalist