As part of Newsy’s dedication to celebrating Pride Month and the many accomplishments of the LGBTQ+ community, Evening Debrief’s Natalie Allen got the chance to interview Chaya Milchtein, queer automotive educator, social media influencer and journalist.
Shortly after aging out of the foster care system, Milchtein found herself working in the automotive industry at a Sears Auto Center in Glendale, Wisconsin. She would spend five years working in automotive repair and another in collision before a love for blogging would grow into starting her own company in 2017.
“I really just started as a blog. I was writing some articles and people liked it,” Milchtein recalled, talking about how she started her company. “So, gotta evolve, gotta bring people what they want.”
Mechanic Shop Femme is an organization dedicated to empowering women and LGBTQ+ people with knowledge to work on and purchase their own cars. But in the five years since starting the company, Milchtein has expanded her platform to explore many of her passions including body acceptance, travel, food, fashion and so much more.
“My goal is really to help the average car owner better understand their car, so better understand how to find a mechanic, how to buy a car, how to take care of their car, what they need to do by themself. There’s a lot of people out there focused on teaching you how to fix your own car, that’s not really my goal. My goal is to help regular folks better understand this really expensive mode of transportation that we need,” Milchtein told Newsy.
