WHEN Christina Roki’s family car broke down, they couldn’t afford a mechanic.
Instead of giving up, the TikTok influencer had a bold idea: what if she fixed it herself? Here’s the story behind her inspiring move.
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Who is Christina Roki?
Christina Roki is a motor enthusiast and social media personality with over three million followers across her social media platforms.
A Detroit native, she was born on Christmas Day in 2000.
The rising STEM influencer earned her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Michigan between 2019 and 2021.
The 23-year-old and her boyfriend of over five years, Grant Sloan, also share a YouTube channel where they post vlogs about buying, building, and modifying cars.
Read more on TikTok stars
However, her journey into the industry started during a time when her family was struggling to make ends meet.
With a growing family, there was little money to spare, so any help was welcome.
Most would turn to relatives for help or take out a short-term loan.
So, when their car needed fixing, she chose to take matters into her own hands and learn the skills herself.
After dealing with her parents’ car troubles, Christina turned her newfound knowledge and social media savvy into a remarkable success story.
She first posted on TikTok in January 2020.
And now she’s a powerhouse in the niche world of automotive engineering and aesthetics, with around 3.7 million TikTok followers and 265,000 on Instagram.
Her videos, posted several times a week, draw hundreds of thousands of viewers.
It has cemented her place among the top automotive creators.
But here’s the twist: Christina didn’t succeed right away.
She failed—many times—at fixing that car, and faced backlash from her father.
She told Chaldean News: “I won’t lie, I started crying.
“It’s just that doubt, constant doubt from your own support system.
“It filled me with anger, confusion, and I questioned my own abilities. You have to brush it off, even when it comes from your own father, that you can’t do it because you’re a girl.”
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Growing up, Christina joked that she was the boy in the family.
While she got along well with her sisters and shared the same household chores, she gravitated toward interests often seen as traditionally masculine—cars, engineering, and computer science.
When the infamous car breakdowns began, Christina turned to YouTube to educate herself on car mechanics.
Those moments sparked something bigger, and today, millions hear the echoes of her first clanking through her viral videos.
Convincing her mother to let her move to Los Angeles at 18 was another challenge.
Christina explained: “It’s hard for them to understand social media, TikTok, car engineering, and the educational side of it.
“Being successful is a big part, knowing that I was able to make something out of it.”
Initially, her mother raised objections when Christina worked on projects with boys.
Christina countered, saying, “There are no girls to work with, but this is me trying to make that change.”
She’s now on a mission to pave the way for other women in the industry.
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Looking back, Christina admits it all feels a bit silly but acknowledges how much it fueled her ambition.
She said: “It definitely drove me to be where I am right now and fueled me up.”
The doubts from her family helped her develop resilience, allowing her to shrug off negative comments on social media.
“It’s just another variable that helps me boost my drive and keeps me going and learning.”
In December 2021, she posted a video on Tiktok showing her mom getting stopped by airport security, after her bag of sugar was mistaken for drugs.
Where is Christina Roki from?
Roki’s mother had found companionship with a fellow Chaldean, and together, they ushered in three daughters, including Christina herself.
Hence her origins lie in the Catholic Syriac community, originally from northern Iraq.
But Christina’s journey has been far from easy.
As a young, first-generation American woman, she occupies a unique space in the automotive influencer world.
Her family’s story is one of resilience.
I was constantly trying to make ends meet with my parents’ bills.
Christina Roki
Fleeing Iraq just before the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, her mother and relatives walked to the Turkish border seeking refuge.
From there, they applied for refugee status, but like many in the Chaldean diaspora, the family was scattered.
Some relatives ended up in Europe, others in Canada.
When Christina was about five, her mother moved back to Canada with her and her siblings, reconnecting with family there.
By middle school, they returned to the Detroit area, where Christina’s story truly began to take shape.
She said: “I was constantly trying to make ends meet with my parents’ bills.
“But I never blamed my parents.”
Christina shared that her mother often worked two or three jobs at once, and her sisters pitched in whenever they could, even becoming their parents’ translators.
Sometimes, this meant helping with things like applying for food stamps or healthcare, filing taxes, or keeping up with household chores.
She added: “My head was always in the real world.
“My sisters and cousins always have my back. If my mom had one dollar in her pocket, she would give it to us.”
What did Christina Roki study?
Robotics was Christina’s first real introduction to computer science and engineering in an educational setting, and it was a game-changer.
She fell in love with the field and decided to turn it into a career.
The experience also gave her the confidence to collaborate with groups of boys in a traditionally male-dominated space—an asset she’s carried with her ever since.
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Her journey began at Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights, where she met her statistics and calculus teacher, Mr. Carpenter.
She said: “He was one of my biggest mentors.
“He told me about tons of opportunities and scholarships.”
She admired his ability to teach to each student’s needs instead of treating the class as one average group.
Mr. Carpenter encouraged her to join the robotics team, sparking her passion for computer science even further.
Even before graduating, Christina started her own initiative for women in STEM.
I want to inspire girls to join male-dominated fields.
Christina Roki
Christina explained: “The robotics team in high school is there so we can learn and make mistakes.
“I wanted to create something like that but less competitive.”
That idea grew into Project 102, Christina’s annual automotive STEM camp for women.
The program welcomes 20 female high school students each year for a five-day experience filled with workshops, lectures, and hands-on vehicle modification projects.
She shared: “I want to inspire girls to join male-dominated fields.
“Being Chaldean, our families want us to be doctors and pharmacists, but I just wanted to be an engineer.
“I wanted to introduce it to other students for free so they can figure out if it’s a passion of theirs.
“This is something you can’t really do unless someone puts it in front of you.”
Christina understands that many car engineers and mechanics discover the field through family or friends—opportunities that women often miss.
She’s working to change that, one STEM camp, and millions of online viewers, at a time.
Christina graduated from Stevenson High School a year early and entered the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering as a junior, eager to continue breaking barriers.