This doesn't work so well in written form, but I will try.
My mum used to teach a class of 13 year-olds history and current affairs. One thing she used to do to spark their interest was to make them research an historical or current real person they would like to have been. She found that by studying a person’s life they would discover facts about the country and times that person lived in.
When she did this for the last time, in 1997, she had several good examples. Little Johnny, for example, would like to have been Mohammed Ali. His original reasoning was that it would be great to be so strong and fast and to be able to beat up pretty much anyone, but he discovered Ali’s prison sentence for refusing to go to Viet Nam, his involvement in the civil rights movement and so much more about the great man and his times. My mum was both pleased and surprised.
Than little Alice had to give her speech. It was obvious that she had done far less research.
“I would like to be Sarah Pipellini” she said.
My mum had never heard of Sarah, so she asked Alice why?
Alice reached into her folder and pulled out a copy of Engineering Weekly, with the headline “Sahara Pipeline laid by 120 men in 22 days”