My name is Nicole Etolen, and I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I started out with pen and paper, moved on to a standard typewriter when I was a teenager, to an electric typewriter in my late teens, and finally to a computer in my early 20s. I’ve written horrible short stories that never saw publication (and caused my mom to ask my writing instructor if I was “normal,” as if I’ve EVER been normal!) and pretty rockin’ feature-length articles that appeared in a local magazine.

I’m a mom (To an 18-year-old adult now! How the heck did THAT happen??? He was five when I started this site!), an avid reader and trivia junkie. I love learning, and have started several different degrees, yet never finished one because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, aside from a writer. As a result of my degree hopping, I have a strong understanding of psychology, basic nursing skills (I went to nursing school and almost finished the LPN program), journalism, communication, and literature. I have zero knowledge of math, however!

In addition to Pretty Opinionated, I own Middle Grade Reads, a site dedicated to sharing the best books for tweens. I also started working for Pawzitivity Pets as the editor of DogVills back in early 2022. I actually used to edit DogVills with it’s previous owner before Pawz acquired it in late 2020. It wasn’t my site, but it was one of my “babies.” So I jumped at the chance to work on it again.