Today we’d like to introduce you to Niky Rivera.
Hi Niky, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Hello, my name is Niky. I have been creating most of my life I started doing creative things in high school. I was part of the costuming department of my high school theater and that made me want to create every day, after that I went to college and I was gonna get a regular degree but I decided to go for photography and graphic design. While I was studying I created a models agency for alternative people because I thought that it was something needed in society, The project was extremely successful and my idea was recreated by different entities with and without authorization, no much time after that I created a roller derby league in Puerto Rico and started skating from scratch with other woman of the island that never skated before to promote physical education in adults and women empowerment in adult women and young girls. After I went through that journey of being in Roller Derby girl I’ve decided that I wanted to do something more with society. Creating programs like that would help communities and help others inside the community, that took me to study psychology- I finished my bachelor’s degree and realized that I couldn’t practice psychology with only a bachelor’s degree so I went over to graduate school and study community health education and epidemiology by doing so I was able to create programs to help young LGBTQ teens and also be able to have the knowledge and the authority to create more programs. It has been a crazy journey to become a creator inside Instagram because it takes a long time and I’ve been working on a doctorate during that time I work full-time and I have been moving a lot (husband is in the military) that takes me here to Orlando I moved in June 2021 and I feel that I have always been part of the Orlando community since I’ve been blogging and Instagraming about the parks for at least four years now I used to live in Tampa but this is my first time being a resident of central Florida. I feel that creating while living close to the parks is better in a way but if you do not live in the Orlando area and you still love the parks you can do this too.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Creating is a job even if you love it it’s responsibilities it’s commitment and it’s a job you have to take from your time, take from your money and sometimes risk failing and that is not perfect and most people don’t like to fail so it’s a job, however, I think when you find a supporting crew you will find that creating becomes easier and more natural it’s like being in the right place at the right time all the time. It’s not easy finding your niche finding your tribe and walking over eggshells to not step on somebody else’s turf and I say it like that because sometimes that’s how it feels, some people feel that they are the owners of something when in reality everybody’s so unique that you can make your creative palette and nobody else will touch it nobody else will be the same as you.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think I am multifaceted creative because I have done many things in my life and some of them seem kind of unreal because in such a short life I have been able to create so much in different areas. at this moment I am a digital creator I try to share experiences for people to do them too, I’d like to encourage adults to continue to play and not play as kids but play as adults enjoying life not to work but to live and I use a lot of mental health theories and I try to include that in my creative work so if I share a video or a photo I always try to include motivational speech or just my personal experiences so people know that they are not alone. I also try to share anything that I feel is important at the moment even if it’s political it will be shared especially if it affects minorities, Black people and LGBTQ community so for me, I am a digital creator that works with mental health as a professional and also I encourage play.
Any big plans?
I am so excited to be close to the parks now that I am a resident of Central Florida so my future plans are to visit more places outside the ticketed parks I want to create more events where people can come and enjoy the day without having to pay for a ticket but also have the magic of the parks. when I was in Puerto Rico I used to have an event called magic at the parks and I want to bring that to Central Florida magic at the parks was an event where people can meet up in a public park to skate or to walk or to share alike interests. At this moment I am working with my bi-monthly project Beuxbaton for a day this is an event inside a ticketed park but we are adding more events in national parks where we will have a theme and people can just come and dressed up or just join the theme that we choose or they can just come because they like the theming but not necessarily like to dress up so all people are included in these events and everybody is welcome to these types of events that I’m creating so if you’re interested in meeting more people that like creative stuff and dress up please do follow me to see more information of the upcoming events.
Contact Info:
- Email: Nikysama@ymail.com
- Website: www.soymagia.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/magicparatus
- Other: www.tiktok.com/magicparatus
