Dami Olonisakin famously known as Oloni, a blogger, podcaster and BBC tv presenter shares on how she reached fame and how her time at the University of Bedfordshire helped her to work in the media, writes Emmanuel Ladapo.
Oloni graduated from the University of Bedfordshire with a degree in Journalism. She has then gone on to receive popularity and awards with her blog, podcast and TV presenter with the BBC show My mate’s a bad date, all based around sex education and relationship advice.
In an exclusive interview she talks about what pushed her into Journalism, how her popularity started and her vision for the future.
Dami explained what inspired her to get involved in journalism:
“I was inspired to study journalism because I was always writing a lot I used to read a lot of magazines when I was much younger and it was just something that I could see myself doing, I knew I wanted to work within the media.
“I enjoyed broadcasting I enjoyed radio I enjoyed being a tv presenter, I enjoyed creating media content, so for me it felt like journalism was the best fit”
Dami talked about her experience studying journalism at the University of Bedfordshire and how it helped her career:
“It helped in terms of showing me different sides of the media and picking up different skills such as shorthand, I learned how to edit recordings and now I have a podcast.
“I think I my true understanding of how to edit a podcast came from one of my radio modules that I did there I met a lot of amazing people, Those were skills I picked up, it helped me network and gave me the encouragement that I needed to gain work experience in my field.
“I had a very splendid time there, an amazing lecturer that I still remember is Kate Einside, she was a very good lecturer, she was very hands on”
Dami is known for helping women with relationship advice using her different platforms, she revealed the plans she had in the near future to further support and inspire women:
“Just working on my book, for women to help inspire women, to just want more in their love lives as well, my biggest project so far.”
Her blog Simply Oloni which won the award for best sex and relationships at the 2015 cosmopolitan blog awards is what launched her career, where people first saw her work. She shared how her blog has gained publicity overtime:
“My blog gains a lot of traction I force people to read it, share it tell me their thoughts, create conversations.
“It’s important in journalism is that you want people to have conversations about it, a topic of interest and something that people don’t often talk about so I think that’s what my blog did and that’s how I pushed it forward.”
She also shared what motivated her on a daily basis:
“My ambition, I’ve always had quite high ambition, a lot of the women inspiring me when I was growing up were my motivation
“I would just say knowing what is possible and what I can reach. Just wanting to make sure that my name leaves a mark or to know that I have a legacy in creating conversations or creating movements I would say that’s what motivates me at all.”
She clearly is passionate about what can be such a taboo topic for people to be open about but it seems her efforts to spread awareness about relationships and sex education are going to new heights, featuring on Most recently featuring on Sex:Unzipped on Netflix alongside popular names Katherine Ryan, Romesh Ranganathan and the host rapper Saweetie. Alongside the aforementioned BBC series and a ever growing social media following it seems her impact is set to become greater yet.