--- title: Barbra Streisand Knew She Would Be Star, Didn't Learn Typing description: Barbra Streisand always knew that she would be famous, so to make a point to her mother, she didn't learn to type. canonical: https://time.com/4995817/barbra-streisand-bio/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-24T21:57:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:15.584Z og:title: How Barbra Streisand Proved to Her Mom She Would Be a Star og:description: "I knew that I would be famous" og:url: https://time.com/4995817/barbra-streisand-bio/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89d00927c911b8b9/6988e342096a9437826a0260/barbra-streisand-long-nails-typing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2017 Tribeca Film Festival - Tribeca Talks: Storytellers: Barbra Streisand With Robert Rodriguez og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Barbra Streisand Proved to Her Mom She Would Be a Star twitter:description: "I knew that I would be famous" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89d00927c911b8b9/6988e342096a9437826a0260/barbra-streisand-long-nails-typing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Barbra Streisand Had a Foolproof Way of Proving to Her Mother That She Would Be a Star > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=73694276-e4fe-4a68-bf98-43a6d936cefc&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 24, 2017 9:57 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 29: Singer-songwriter Barbra Streisand attends Tribeca Talks: Storytellers: Barbra Streisand With Robert Rodriguez during 2017 Tribeca Film Festival at BMCC Tribeca PAC on April 29, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic) NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 29: Singer-songwriter Barbra Streisand attends Tribeca Talks: Storytellers: Barbra Streisand With Robert Rodriguez during 2017 Tribeca Film Festival at BMCC Tribeca PAC on April 29, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic) Gilbert Carrasquillo—FilmMagic  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 24, 2017 9:57 PM UTC Chanteuse and all-around cultural icon [Barbra Streisand](http://time.com/4731301/barbra-streisand-broadway-debut-photos/) knew that she was [destined for greatness](http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19640410,00.html) at a young age, even if her mother needed some convincing. In an interview with [Alec Baldwin](http://time.com/4634959/alec-baldwin-on-trump-interview/) on his podcast _Here’s the Thing_, Babs revealed that her mother was less than thrilled with her desire to be in show business and instead tried to advise her to take up a practical skill like typing. Streisand’s response? She grew out her nails and continued to her pursue her dreams, although she admitted in hindsight that typing skills may have actually come in handy. “My mother didn’t believe in me. She kept telling me, ‘Do what your father did, become a teacher…learn to type,'” she said. “And that’s when I let my nails grow long. So I couldn’t type. Believe me, I wish I could type now. I have to dictate everything into a tape recorder.” Streisand also shared that she was so sure that she would one day be famous that she would hide her face during an early job as a theater usher. “To make money, you’d get 4 dollars and five cents…to be an usher in the theater,” she said. “So I would love to go see the plays, but in a sense I didn’t have enough money to see all the plays. So I became an usher in the theater so I could see the play. But meanwhile I was 16, 17, that kind of age? I knew that I would be famous. Because I would hide my head so they wouldn’t see me at my face showing them to their seats ‘cause I thought, ‘You know, when I become famous, they’re gonna recognize me as the girl who showed them to their seats.” Listen to the full podcast below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4995817/barbra-streisand-bio/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4995817/barbra-streisand-bio/"},"headline":"Barbra Streisand Had a Foolproof Way of Proving to Her Mother That She Would Be a Star","datePublished":"2017-10-24T21:57:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:48:15.584Z","description":"\"I knew that I would be famous\"","url":"https://time.com/4995817/barbra-streisand-bio/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","viral","Alec Baldwin"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89d00927c911b8b9/6988e342096a9437826a0260/barbra-streisand-long-nails-typing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89d00927c911b8b9/6988e342096a9437826a0260/barbra-streisand-long-nails-typing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2017 Tribeca Film Festival - Tribeca Talks: Storytellers: Barbra Streisand With Robert Rodriguez","caption":"2017 Tribeca Film Festival - Tribeca Talks: Storytellers: Barbra Streisand With Robert Rodriguez","creditText":"Gilbert Carrasquillo—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4995817/barbra-streisand-bio/","name":"Barbra Streisand Had a Foolproof Way of Proving to Her Mother That She Would Be a Star"}}]}] ```