TikToker Mechanic Shop Femme Writes a Guidebook on Car Ownership

Automotive educator puts readers in the driver's seat

In search of work, Chaya M. Milchtein applied for a job at her local Sears in Glendale, Wisconsin. When asked which department she wished to join, Milchtein chose the auto center—but not because she knew anything about cars.

“I didn’t even have a driver’s license at that point,” she says. “I just thought it might be a little more interesting than all the other options that were available.”

Little did Milchtein know that her job in the Sears Auto and subsequent positions would teach her all she ever needed to know about cars. Such posts put her on the road to becoming an automotive educator and influencer, known to fans as Mechanic Shop Femme. On TikTok she is approaching 600,000 followers, plus nearly 120,000 on Instagram.

And now, she’s an author, too. Little, Brown published Milchtein’s first book—the Mechanic Shop Femme’s Guide to Car Ownership—a few months back.

The book (also available in e-book and audiobook form) is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to buy a car, or needs to know how to take care of the vehicle they already have.

Milchtein, who is queer, points out that the automotive industry has never been a welcoming place for us. And by us, she means “women, queer people and folks of marginalized identities.” So, she strives to take our experiences “into account in every sentence I write.”

Here, Milchstein, who has worked with brands including CarMax, Tire Rack and iFixit, discusses her career in the automotive industry:

Muse: What made you write this book?

I’ve been doing automotive education now for seven years. And I look at this book as a one-stop shop. You can’t always take a class, and you can’t always get on a call with me. There’s something about a book that just allows a bit more nuance, a bit more context. And it allows for a reference that’s at an accessible price point.

While cars are an everyday part of our lives, so many people live in fear of them breaking down and having to deal with that.

That’s exactly right. Everybody is terrified of the next time their car is going to break down, or just having to go in and get an oil change—it’s like fear of the unknown. What’s going to happen? And the less money you have, the more likely something’s going to happen that’s going to put you back further from where you are.

Your book is comprehensive, covering everything from how to buy the right car to finding a good mechanic, plus the ins and outs of electric vehicles. Is anything particularly resonating with readers?

The biggest thing people say is, “There’s so much information in here!” For me, what’s important is that I give you as much information as possible in the most digestible way, but also make sure that information is actually useful.

You’ve worked with a number of brands as an influencer. Any dream collaborations on your list?

Subaru and State Farm are definitely big ones. I would love to work with SimpleTire. Their platform is great. In the future, I see a possibility of consulting with automotive brands, not in an influencer capacity, but in a consulting capacity, where I can help them understand a substantial part of their customer base. Sometimes brands miss that. A lot of times, customers buy from them because they don’thave a lot of other choices, not because they are fiercely loyal. There’s a difference between buying from a brand that you love—and you feel like their marketing and education and content really speaks to you—and buying from a brand because their products are the best option for your budget at this point.

Why do you think you took to the automotive industry the way you did?

I’ve always been the one who’s wanted people to understand things, whether it was being raised in a Hasidic Jewish home and asking more questions than were appreciated, or getting into this space and saying, “I’m going to give it my all until I figure out what the next thing is.” I want to excel or succeed and feel like I’m making a difference in some kind of way.

When I started in the automotive industry, I was like, “Oh my goodness, I’m going so far away from what I thought my life was going to look like—a life of service, in a way. I wanted to help people. Even in high school, I was running the gay-straight alliance, and I was interning at Fair Wisconsin, and I was stumping for the Victory Fund. I had expectations that I would be able to help people in a more—I don’t want to say legitimate—but in a more substantial, easier to understand way.

Then I got into the automotive industry, and I thought, “I’ve just got to do this. I’ve got to keep a roof over my head”—only to realize how much help people really need in this space and how cars touch every single part of our lives. Having a car provides you with the opportunity to drag yourself out of poverty, to get jobs that are further away.

We also get to know some personal things about you in this book. Why was it important to you to share some of your life with your readers?

Before you start a blog, you have to find a name, right? And I came up with Mechanic Shop Femme. And one of the big reasons for putting “femme” in there is because I wanted to make sure I brought my full self to this work.

People had to understand that I was multi-passionate. I have a lot of things that I love and experiences I have been through. It allows me to connect with people on a deeper level. There’s something about being vulnerable that allows people to connect with you, that allows people to see you as a human being as opposed to just a person who talks about cars.

So when I wrote the intro and the conclusion to my book, I wanted to share who I was, to set the stage for what the book was going to be. And being somebody who went through the foster care system at 16, I think that was a pretty important part of my life. And it was a point in my life that really brought me to where I am today. Because had I not gone through the foster care system, I may have ended up in a very different place.