User:Invisiboy42293/Chaya Milchtein

Chaya Milchtein (born January 14, 1995), known online as the Mechanic Shop Femme, is an American internet celebrity, food and travel journalist, automotive educator, and activist.

Early life

• grandmother was born in Soviet Union

(source notes)

• • “Both my parents are big people, plus-size people,” said queer activist Chaya Milchtein of Mechanic Shop Femme, who has amassed an enormous Instagram and web following translating the Hasidism of her childhood into devoted tikkun olam equity practices for fat acceptance—and, of all things, making car mechanics accessible to all bodies, genders, and economic backgrounds."
  • "“I grew up a big child in a Hasidic home in un-Orthodox Milwaukee,” she said. “It has impacted how I view the world.”"
  • "“It hit home at 15 and a half, when I announced I was ready to be married and my father started looking for shiduchim for me,” Milchtein continued. “Suddenly my weight became a huge problem. The on-paper stats they offered potential suitors included height and weight. Weight became a huge sticking point. ‘You have to lose weight,’ my father told me. I didn’t have a scale so he told me to go to the UPS store and to get weighed on a package scale.”"
  • Her mother enrolled her in a program for obese teens at the local hospital, but to be admitted she had to have a preexisting condition. “Besides being fat, I just didn’t have one. I was healthy,” Milchtein recalled. Her mother wanted her admitted to this program badly, so she had her daughter tested often in an effort to prove she had a health issue affected by obesity. But there wasn’t one."
  • “I live in my body proudly, openly, and without hesitation,” declared Milchtein, whose self-proclaimed “Biggest Queerest Wedding of the Year” was broadcast live to thousands on Aug. 29. “That in and of itself is an act of resistance.”
• • Chaya Milchtein’s first memory of a car is her mom — then seven months pregnant — trying to jump-start the family’s 1995 Chevy Express. “Throughout my childhood, I always remember my mother trying to finagle stuff with the car,” Milchtein said in a phone interview.
  • The oldest child of ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents, she said she felt at odds with her conservative upbringing and often sneaked off to the library to read the books banned at home.
  • “My mother was married for 25 years with 15 kids, so most of the time she was pregnant. I remember wishing she knew how to do more. I wish she had more understanding of how things can be done — but it never really crossed my mind to get into the automotive field.”
  • With a finely tuned, informative blog and a series of online course offerings, Milchtein, 24, calls herself the “Mechanic Shop Femme.” Her mission: to put the steering wheel back in the hands of women, femmes and queer folks. Online posts include topics like “Saying No in the Mechanic Shop” and “My Car Isn’t Starting, Now What?” while rotating classes on Facebook Live address questions such as “How the Heck Do I Buy a Used Car?”
  • “I went into foster care when I was 16, and when I was aging out at 18, I had a very difficult time finding a job. A kind person knew the HR manager at the local Sears and offered to set me up with an interview,” she described. When Milchtein arrived, they asked her which department she wanted to work in. “I didn’t know. I had political training, and I had done a lot of activism work. I couldn’t imagine myself starting a career folding clothes,” Milchtein said. So, she told them, “Whatever department makes the most money.” “We ended up in cars. I didn't even have my driver’s license. I had never driven a car. But, I started working at Sears as a service adviser, and they taught me everything I knew. Three months later, I transferred to the Sears in Brooklyn, New York, from Milwaukee,” she continued. “Within six months, I became top 10 in the country in sales.”
  • After beginning the blog in summer 2017, Milchtein bounced back from New York and landed in Milwaukee at the beginning of 2018, this time looking to put down roots. Instead, what she found was a workforce that mistrusted her abilities because of her gender. “In New York, people are a little more open-minded, and if you prove yourself, they’re likely to give you a chance. But, when I moved back here, I couldn’t find a job, even though I had a boatload of experience,” she said. “When car people talk to me about cars, it’s pretty clear I know what I am talking about — but I couldn’t get an interview.” Eventually, she started a new gig under an owner who wouldn’t even let her answer the phone. “Then I went on to work for a dealership. I was really disappointed. I loved the fact that I was able to focus on one specific vehicle, but it was very difficult to work as an ethical person. I was constantly asked to bend the truth and at times even lie to the customer about repairs. Their rate was $99/hour, but they actually charged closer to $125/hour by increasing labor time. They would spray rear main seals with oil and charge the extended warranty company to replace them.”
  • While she did finally land a solid position, Milchtein believes the job search shouldn’t be so perilous. “This industry doesn't have enough talent. It doesn't have enough people. It’s desperate for good folks, but it’s not even considering those right in front of them.”
  • Just don’t call her a mechanic — she considers herself an automotive educator. “I feel like I have maxed out my potential in mechanical. I have been a service manager at major places,” she said. “But, the bigger jobs are not customer-facing. The education aspect, and the working with people, that’s what I am here for, that’s my passion.”
  • “Education was always very important to me. I always felt like not having the resources to educate yourself is one of the worst things in the world. I wanted to create a space where you not only had the right resource, you had it from somebody who was like you.”
• • Chaya Milchtein was 18, broke and aging out of foster care when hope came to her in the unexpected form of a used Buick Century. The car wasn’t sleek or trendy, but it was affordable, thanks to a credit union loan. With it, the Milwaukee teen could deliver fast food, work at a Sears Auto Center, and begin building the skills that would lead to national recognition.
  • This week Milchtein, an automotive educator at the website Mechanic Shop Femme, was named to the prestigious Out100 list of the most influential and impactful LGBTQ people in media, the arts, sports, entertainment and advocacy.
  • Milchtein said that she “never intended to wind up anywhere in the remote vicinity of cars,” but while working her first auto center job, she realized she had a knack for translating what mechanics said into language that the average person could understand.
  • She went on to work in automotive repair centers for more than seven years, in jobs such as service adviser and service manager.
  • Milchtein, who is queer, fashion-forward and plus-sized, said that repair shops and car dealerships have historically been hypermasculine, with a toxic culture that makes women and LGBTQ people uncomfortable. She wanted to help change that as an online automotive educator.
  • She started Mechanic Shop Femme four years ago, and now has 500,000 followers on online platforms, more than 88% of them women.
  • She kept her day job until she was laid off at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, she’s focused on her own business full time, building a career as an influencer and car educator via posts on a heady mix of topics ranging from plus-size vintage fashion, to sex toys, to how to find an honest mechanic.
  • Asked about her fashion influences, she said that growing up a Hasidic Jew, she was expected to dress modestly. And to this day, she said, she favors dresses and wide-legged pants, although now in an expanded color palette. “I always really liked bright colors and red — which is sort of the polar opposite of what I was allowed to wear as a kid,” she said.
  • Milchtein offers virtual classes on automotive topics for her online audience, as well as private classes for libraries, universities, nonprofits and corporations.
  • She’s written a book proposal and is hoping to branch out in a variety of ways: with more classes for corporate audiences, a report on the best cars for bigger bodies and consulting jobs at car repair shops and dealerships, aimed at making those spaces more welcoming for LGBTQ people and women.