Vanessa Mae

I started skiing around the same time as I began playing the piano, at around four, before moving to the violin at five.

But I don't think I've grown up to be a damaged adult.

When I hit my 20s, I took a chill pill and relaxed because throughout my teens I was churning out an album a year. It was a treadmill of work then recording, promoting and touring.

My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.