Christina Roki

Motor City’s Media Maven

By Cal Abbo

When Christina Roki’s family car broke down, they couldn’t afford a mechanic to look it over. Her family lived paycheck to paycheck, and with three children, there was little money to spare. Most would turn to a family member for help or take out a short-term loan. But Christina had a rare and enterprising thought: What if she tried to fix it herself?

The rest, as they say, is history.

Since the incidents with her parents’ car, Christina leveraged her knowledge and social savvy to find extraordinary success on social media in the niche market of automotive engineering and aesthetics, amassing more than three million followers on TikTok and 265,000 on Instagram. Her videos, which she posts several times per week, attract viewers in the hundreds of thousands. These numbers put her in the top echelon of automotive social media creators, and she is certainly one of the most popular Chaldean influencers in the world.

There is, however, a hitch in the narrative. Christina failed, many times, at fixing the vehicle. The key differences between her story and others are persistence, diligence, and the relentless desire to help her own family.

A Mechanic’s Metamorphosis

The journey was neither straightforward nor simple. As a young, first-generation American woman, Christina has a unique position in the automotive influencer category. She’s learned a lot about the cutthroat and saturated industry, and with few female influencers to draw inspiration from, she has forged her own path out of necessity.

Christina’s mother was born in Zakho, a mid-sized city located about as far north as Iraq extends. Her family fled just before the Iran-Iraq war began in 1980. According to Christina, her mother and her family walked all the way to the border to seek refuge in Turkey.

From there, her family applied for refugee status. Unfortunately, different people were accepted in different parts of the world. This is common for refugees and contributes to the reality of the Chaldean diaspora. Some of her family went to Europe, and some to Canada. Christina’s mother eventually married a Chaldean man in Detroit and gave birth to three daughters, including Christina, who was born on Christmas Day in the year 2000.

When Christina was about 5 years old, her mother and the three kids moved back to Canada, where she has several cousins. Once she was in middle school, they moved back to the Detroit area.

Growing up, Christina joked that she was the boy in the family. While she got along well with her sisters and performed the same household chores as they did, she grew to like things that are often seen as traditionally masculine—cars, engineering, and computer science. When the famous car breakdowns began to occur, Christina educated herself on car mechanics by searching the issues on YouTube. In these moments, history was made, and the echoes of her first clanking can be heard by millions around the world who watch her videos.

Christina faced harsh backlash from her father for her attempts to fix the family car. “You can’t do it,” her father said, according to Christina. “Why are you even opening the hood?”

A post on Christina’s social media.

“I won’t lie, I started crying,” Christina said. “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.”

She also had to convince her mother to let her go to Los Angeles as an 18-year-old. “It’s hard for them to understand social media, TikTok, car engineering, and the educational side of it,” she said. “Being successful is a big part, knowing that I was able to make something out of it.”

Christina constantly refers to her parents as “old school.” In the beginning, her mother would see her working on a project with a boy and immediately offer her objections. Christina countered that there were no girls to work with, but part of her mission was to change that. “I told them, this is me trying to make that change.”

While Christina still takes it seriously, she said it feels silly thinking about it now. “Looking back, it definitely drove me to be where I am right now and fueled me up,” she added. “It’s another variable that helps me boost my drive, that keeps me going and learning.” Having these doubts come from her own family, she said, helped her laugh off outlandish social media comments which come from people she doesn’t even know.

At Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights, Christina met her statistics and calculus teacher, Mr. Carpenter. “He was one of my biggest mentors. He told me about tons of opportunities and scholarships,” she said, emphasizing his exceptional ability to instruct each individual student rather than teaching an average class. He also encouraged her to join the robotics team to further explore her passion for computer science.

Robotics introduced her to the world of computer science and engineering in an official and educational setting. She fell in love with the field and decided to make it into a career. This experience also gave her the confidence to work with groups of boys in a traditionally male-dominated field, an asset she’s carried with her ever since.

Even before she graduated high school, Christina started a program for women in STEM. “The robotics team in high school is there so we can learn and make mistakes,” she said. “I wanted to create something like that but less competitive.” Thus, Christina’s automotive STEM camp for women, Project 102, was born.

Young women work with Christina at her STEM program, Project 102.

The annual camp accepts 20 female high school students who are interested in STEM and the automotive industry and leads them through a five-day program of workshops, lectures, and hands-on installation of vehicle modifications.

This year’s iteration of Project 102, which concluded in March, was featured as a photo essay in the Detroit Free Press. Sarahbeth Maney, a photojournalist for the Free Press, showcased the project to the metro Detroit community.

“I want to inspire girls to join male-dominated fields,” Christina said. “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 that you can’t really do unless someone puts it in front of you.”

Christina tapped into an important aspect of the gender disparity in engineering and the automotive industry. As a general rule, this work is difficult to access because of its expensive equipment. Many car engineers and mechanics end up in the industry after learning or being inspired by family or friends, and women are not privy to this type of knowledge as much as men. Christina is trying to fix that, 20 women and millions of viewers at a time.

From Scarcity to Stardom

During her childhood, Christina’s parents didn’t speak much English, and they had an especially difficult time reading and interpreting mail. This gap was filled by her and her sisters, who would help translate documents and bills.

“I was constantly trying to make ends meet with my parents’ bills,” Christina said. Often, she couldn’t afford to participate in class field trips because of costs, and she never had stylish, new clothes to wear in school. “But I never blamed my parents,” she added.

According to Christina, her mother worked two or three jobs at a time, and her sisters would help whenever they could. At times, this meant applying for food stamps or healthcare, or filing taxes, and helping around the house. “My head was always in the real world.”

This childhood experience feeds Christina’s strong desire to support her own family, and bonds them together in everlasting connection. “We’re very family-dependent,” she said. “My sisters and cousins always have my back. If my mom had one dollar in her pocket, she would give it to us.”

Christina’s mother tells her daughters that she came to this country for them, so they could have a better life. Christina accepted this love, transformed it, and sent it back. She wants her mother to have a better life now and see something grow out of her own arduous journey.

Christina’s expertise in the automotive industry is mostly self-taught, however, she is an exceptional student. She graduated from Stevenson one year early and entered college as a junior at the University of Michigan in the College of Engineering. She is due to graduate this summer, which will give her more time to work on her car builds and content creation. Before her social media accounts blew up, she wanted to work for one of the big three as a data analyst on performance vehicles. Although the path is less clear now, she has only expanded her options.

“I had a lot of doubts, but I’ve always been a big risk-taker,” Christina said. “I wanted to not take the average path. I have goals bigger than I could achieve by taking an average path. If I just went with the flow, it wouldn’t get me where I need to go.”

Christina sees herself as a force for inspiration in her community. She shared one of her mottos, which she learned in Chaldean and translated into English. “Keep your head down and walk.”

She interprets this saying as a way to stay humble and focus on your own path. Have your ups and downs but keep them to yourself. “I have so many ideas and things I want to accomplish,” she said. “It’s more fulfilling if you achieve it on your own, without telling anyone your plans.”

The influencer in Japan with Nissan.

Fast Lane to Fame

Christina’s content has changed a lot since she began. She first learned about TikTok from her younger sister, who was on the app before it even got its name. “She’s always ahead of the trend and gives me inspiration and ideas,” Christina said.

Christina also claims to be one of the first automotive influencers on TikTok. In the beginning, she posted educational content like how to change a headlight or modify a car. Then, over time, it turned into a lifestyle account, and she started to involve her family.

Now, Christina is a shining example for female automotive content creators. She regularly sees content online that is clearly inspired by her own, and she couldn’t be prouder. “I get a lot of tags and comments, people telling me about their cars or that they’re going to school now,” she said. “I’m just here to inspire and be inspired.”

In the beginning, Christina filtered her content so that she only showed successes. She avoided telling her audience about problems she encountered or mistakes she made. Soon, she realized she was putting on a face that was unnecessary; it’s okay to make mistakes and break things. In fact, that’s how others learn from you. She found a lot of media success and more satisfaction after this stylistic switch.

Christina also shares a YouTube channel with her boyfriend of more than five years, Grant Sloan. Together, they post vlogs of themselves buying, building, and modifying cars. While this content is not as lucrative or attention-grabbing as short-form videos, Christina enjoys this more because it allows her to form a deeper connection with her audience.

One of Christina’s favorite cars is one she made for an invitation-only drag race created for influencers. She swapped a Hellcat Redeye with a Challenger RT, which is a complex process that involves removing and reinstalling the Hellcat’s 6.2-liter, supercharged V8 engine in the Challenger, offering nearly double the horsepower. The final modification, which she decided on 24 hours before the race began, was to wrap the vehicle in rose gold.

With great power comes great responsibility, and with that, great fame. When she began, Christina would send emails and pitch projects to various brands; most were not interested. Now, the paradigm has flipped, and brands are eager to work with her. “One of the tipping points was Nissan, which allowed me to build a car and put it at the SEMA show front and center,” she said. For this show, she customized a Nissan truck with a wide body, lowered suspension, custom upholstery, and a custom graphic wrap, among other modifications.

Christina has also worked on major projects with Ruffles, Toyota, Hypebeast, and 7-Eleven. She just revealed her newest car build which features a custom Slurpee design inspired by the world-famous convenience store.

Earlier this year, Christina was invited to the world premiere of Fast X, the latest hit movie in the Fast & Furious series, in Rome, Italy. There, she met some celebrities, including John Cena and her favorite cast member, Jordana Brewster, who plays Mia Toretto in the movies.

“I love bringing my family along on all of these journeys,” she said. “I brought my cousins from Canada and Belgium and my little sister. That’s what makes my day. I don’t like enjoying this stuff all by myself. I want my family to share these experiences, too.”

Christina has enjoyed her fair share of fame from fans, too. In one instance, she went to a car festival in Arizona where one of her fans drove all the way from Texas to meet Christina and show off her own inspired build. “I spent pretty much the whole day with her,” Christina said. “She started watching me from my very first videos. It was a whole different level of connection that makes me want to keep going. I’m here to represent the female automotive community. This is only the start of it.”

Christina believes that brands play a vital role in breaking down the gender gap in the industry, and not just in her case. When large companies sponsor Christina’s projects, it shows other women that there are real opportunities out there, and it helps to grow her female audience.

“Institutions and communities and smaller groups are paving the path for the future, and it can start a chain reaction,” Christina said, referencing her experience with the robotics team. “That’s why it’s important to keep my program going.”

Christina advises her followers to stick with their goals and plans and avoid getting down after a few rejections. Even the most successful stories are full of dismissals and unanswered emails in the beginning. She told a story of her application for a Chaldean Community Foundation scholarship almost five years ago. She was denied, and she admitted it hurt her at the time.

This seemingly small event, which undoubtedly put doubt in her mind and shot her own confidence, came full circle as she recently reconnected with the CCF, albeit at a different stage in her life and for different reasons. This synchronicity reinforced a valuable lesson for Christina, one that she hopes to instill in others: Keep your head down and walk.