Reese Witherspoon has repeatedly stated she’s a huge Dolly Parton fan, but the actress actually dreamed of becoming a replica of the idol as a kid. In fact, she always felt that certain school lessons were redundant because they had nothing to do with her ambitions to become Parton.

She revealed in the new issue of America’s InStyle magazine: “When I was probably five years old, I wanted to be Dolly Parton. I was skipping around the blacktop at school by myself, and my P.E. teacher said, ‘Why aren’t you playing the game [with the other kids]?’

I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to play the game because, Ms. Wright, I’m going to be Dolly Parton when I grow up.’ ”

These days the actress tends to enjoy a variety of jobs. The Sweet Home Alabama star – who has two children with husband Ryan Phillippe and another from a past relationship – launched her own clothing line and embraces the challenge of trying something fresh.

She stated: “It’s a new chapter for me starting a business, going around passing the hat, and promoting it all over the place. It’s a different experience, but I’m enjoying learning something new.

I’ve been acting for about 25 years, and I still love it, but I like the challenge of trying something else too.”

Her goal is to appeal to women who have their own sense of style: “I find there are a lot of people talking about New York and Los Angeles, but there’s a whole world out there in between, and that’s who I like to tell stories about and make products for – people who love the life they have and have a sense of style that’s uniquely their own.”