"I Can Be Anything!" Bridging Today and the Future through Generative AI-driven Self-represented Career Imagination for Children

Children’s career imagination of their future selves is critical for motivation and identity formation, particularly by fostering continuity between present and future. However, current interventions often lead children—whose developmental stage limits future-oriented thinking—to view their future not as something connected to themselves, but as a detached job title or label. We present FutureMe, a generative AI–driven system that helps children imagine self-represented futures. Through a step-by-step process of taking a photo, exploring career options, imagining actions, and building story strips, children see themselves embedded in AI-generated narratives. The activity concludes with writing letters to their future selves. In a study with 17 children, through FutureMe, children revealed hidden aspirations, integrated past and present experiences into imagined futures, and redefined externally prescribed “good careers” as personally meaningful choices. We discuss implications for designing AI tools that empower children’s agency in imagining futures.