We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nikoleta Morales. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nikoleta below.

Nikoleta, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I have always been creative even as a kid. At first, I wanted to be a writer and I started writing poems and essays for which I won many awards. I also did modern ballet for years and I fell in love with dancing so much that I wanted to pursue it as a full-time career. However, my parents and the social environment I grew up in, were not that supportive of the creative arts and pushed me towards a more stable career choice – to become a doctor. I rebelled a lot as my creative soul didn’t want to be anything else but creative. I thought that if I moved from Bulgaria to the US, I would be able to do just that – pursue my creative nature and be able to earn a living for it without being molded into someone I wasn’t. But the reality of the American dream is that not all that glitter is gold.

I moved to the US as a teenager at 15 battling anorexia. After moving to the US and changing my environment, I was able to get better and become healthier. I discovered a different creative side of me – acting. I took acting classes in high school at Fryeburg Academy and even won several awards, including for Best Actress. I was happy following my creative passions until once again reality had to set in.

As much as my heart was telling me to pursue dance as a major in college, I pursued Biology and pre-med. I was very unhappy. My soul wanted me to be a dancer but my mind was telling me I needed to be more practical and follow a different path. I still did dancing on the side and choreographed while in college but I started to get depressed. I wasn’t happy and needed a change. So I stood against my parents and everything I was taught to believe for years, and not only did I leave college, I left the US to go back to Bulgaria and find my true self again. I decided to pursue my writing passion and I enrolled with a journalism degree at the American University in Bulgaria. I finally found peace and happiness and myself back again.

After college, I continued to pursue journalism earning a master’s degree. I worked in different parts of the world as a photojournalist, writer, editor, investigative journalist, and publicist. I found my calling and passion in entertainment journalism. I was able to interview artists and celebrities from all walks of life and cover events such as the Oscars and the Sundance Film Festival in person. That made me feel happy and I found myself. But the journalism career is very challenging and competitive and it doesn’t always pay as much as one journalist deserves to be paid, especially with the current economy, AI chats, and technology. A lot of writers, including myself, are struggling to make a living.

Reality is not always a fairy tale. After COVID-19, entertainment journalism became more difficult and more competitive to pursue. I started looking for other jobs and found myself back to where I didn’t want to be – away from my true passion. I had to make a living working jobs that provided, “regular jobs” that fed my wallet but not my soul. I found a compromise – do freelance entertainment journalism on the side and remain with one foot in the door, while making a living.

I believe as an artist you struggle because creative jobs don’t always pay enough and reality sets in with bills and responsibilities and you have to take on regular jobs that don’t always make you fulfilled and happy. I found that what works for me is the balance of doing my creative passions and pursuits on the side while working a regular job. I started to model as a plus-size model and found another creative relief.

I am still pursuing entertainment journalism, doing plus-size modeling, and working a regular job. It is my life as a creative – to always pursue my passion and yet try to mold into the reality of the world I live in. I hope that in the future what I do creatively will help provide for me 100% but until then I have to push through the daily obstacles. I know that what makes me happy is being creative and my soul can only truly be happy doing that. But I also have to accept that the real world doesn’t always pay the creatives what their work is truly worth. Maybe one day in the future, I will get paid fairly and be able to make a living solely from what I love doing and not look for “regular jobs” that don’t make me happy so I can survive and provide for myself and my teenage daughter.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an award-winning freelance entertainment journalist and publicist based in Chicago. I am also a plus-size fashion model for the House of Solana and have modeled for Model Icon Inc, Victoria Henley’s Magnifique, and Supermodels Unlimited, among other fashion shows. I have written for several publications in the US and abroad, such as BG Voice, Extra Newspaper, Lawndale News, The Daily Herald, FF2 Media, Noseweek (South Africa), Cultured Focus Magazine, Montana Press Monthly Newspaper, the Bulgarian National Television BNT, BTV, among others. I was the Managing Editor for Extra Newspaper from 2012-2014. I won the 2020 Communicator of Achievement Award presented by the Illinois Women’s Press Association. I have interviewed a lot of A-list celebrities and have been invited to cover the Oscars in person since 2019. I also have my entertainment blog: http://nikoletamorales.blogspot.com.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

As we can see from the current creative ecosystem and actor/writer strikes, fair pay has been an issue and a struggle for the creative industries in addition to the presence of AI. I believe that we should be paid fairly for the work that we do and not have to struggle, or work jobs we don’t want to do because we can’t make a living from our creative industries. I do it for the love of the craft and the passion I have for it but the reality is I also need to make a living from what I love doing. Something has to change and needs to change fast. I hope that society will understand that for creatives to thrive and create they need to be compensated fairly and not be replaced by AI.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

What drives my creative journey is my soul’s mission to evolve, create, grow, and bring light as well as positive change in the world. That to me is what being creative is all about – make your path and your unique, authentic art so that others can enjoy it, follow it, or be inspired to make their own.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://nikoletamorales.blogspot.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikoletamorales/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikoleta.morales/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikoletamorales/
• Twitter: @NikoletaMorales
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBZ0RGk_K-pdcKKqtXxLdcQ
• Other: https://muckrack.com/nikoleta-morales

Image Credits
Oscars photos courtesy of Nikoleta Morales (red dress design Mario and Jorge Designs; black dress design House of Solana) House of Solana design photo by Jigna Maniar Lou’s Hues design photo by Joshua Mimbs