Resolving "Integrity constraint violation: 19 NOT NULL", what's the most proper solution?

Trying to write a function to create a new "profile" in my profiles table and get the following error:

"SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 19 NOT NULL constraint failed: profiles.about (SQL: insert into "profiles" ("dateofbirth", "state", "zipcode", "profilepic", "user_id", "updated_at", "created_at") values (2020-04-15, FL, 12345, /tmp/phpTT6CZr, 1, 2020-04-30 00:48:23, 2020-04-30 00:48:23))"

I've been reading answers to similar questions for the past few hours. Tried several different things, no luck so far. Hoping to see a solution that works in my code, and also get a better understanding of where exactly the error begins. The error message leads me to believe it's something to do with my "about" section in table. But unsure. I thought adding " protected $guarded = []; " to controller would solve but that gave the same result.

Here is what I'm working with:

Migration File:

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('profiles', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->unsignedBigInteger('user_id'); //foreign key
        $table->text('about')->nullable;
        $table->text('profilepic')->nullable;
        $table->date('dateofbirth')->nullable;
        $table->unsignedinteger('zipcode')->nullable;
        $table->string('state')->nullable;
        $table->timestamps();

        $table->index('user_id'); //index for foreign key
    });
}

Profile Model:

class profile extends Model {


protected $guarded = [];


public function user()
{
    return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
} }

I have also tried changing the profile model like below:

class profile extends Model {

public function user()
{
    return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
}

/**
 * The attributes that should be cast to native types.
 *
 * @var array
*/

protected $casts = [
    'dateofbirth' => 'datetime',
    'zipcode' => 'unsignedinteger'
];

 /*
 * The attributes that are mass assignable.
 *
 * @var array
 */
protected $fillable = [
    'about','profilepic','state', 'user_id', 'updated_at', 'created_at'
]; }

They both provide the same error message but with slightly different array values

Here is my controller store function:

public function store()
{
    $data = request()->validate([
        'dateofbirth' => 'required',
        'state' => 'required',
        'zipcode' => 'required',
        'profilepic' => 'image'
    ]); 

    auth()->user()->profile()->create($data);

    dd(request()->all());
}

Here is the view:

@extends('layouts.app')

@push('styles')
<link href="{{ asset('css/profile.css') }}" rel="stylesheet">
@endpush

@section('content')
{{-- This needs to present a create profile form --}}

<div class="row">
    <h1 class="pl-4">CREATE YOUR PROFILE</h1>
</div>

<form action="/profile" class="pl-4" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post">
    @csrf

    <div class="form-group row">
        <label for="profilepic"
        class="col-md-4 ocl-form-label"
        >Upload a Profile Picture</label>

        <input type="file"
        class="form-control-file"
        id="profilepic"
        name="profilepic">
    </div>

    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="about">Write your "About" Section here. What do you want us to know about you?</label>
        <textarea type="text" class="form-control" id="about" name="about" rows="3"></textarea>
    </div>

    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="dateofbirth">Date of Birth</label>

        <input type="date"
        id="dateofbirth"
        name="dateofbirth">
    </div>

    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="zipcode">Zipcode</label>
        <input type="text" id="zipcode" name="zipcode">
    </div>

    <div class="form-group">
        <label for="State">State</label>
        <input type="text" id="state" name="state">
    </div>

    <div class="form-group row pt-4">
        <button class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
    </div>
</form> @endsection

That error means you're trying to set a foreign key column as null which is unacceptable, in this case, user_id on profiles table. Try to modify your code as such: In your Profile model, add mass assignment columns:

protected $fillable = ['dateofbirth', 'state', 'zipcode', 'profilepic'];

In your controller store method:

//assuming the route method is authenticated such that there's always a logged in user
$user = auth()->user();
$data['user_id'] = $user->id;
$profile = Profile::create($data);