Jave With Jamie: Love, self-worth and the future with Tinx
She has her own Tabasco hot sauce and a bowl at Chipotle, a show on Sirius XM, and now a book. Known as "Tinx," TikTok star Christina Najjar sat down to have Java with Jamie in West Hollywood.
Tinx finds Verve Coffee Roasters in West Hollywood to be her jolt of joy. The hot spot might just make her Los Angeles "Rich Mom Starter Pack."
"I take a city and then I break down all of the rich mom things and behaviors in that city, so, what car they drive, where they like to shop, where they send their kids to school, where they go on date night with their fabulous partners, and they're really fun," said Tinx.
People, it's almost like they want to make fun of the rich mom, but at the same time, they want to go to the coffee shop that the rich mom goes to.
"Totally. I think that it's a fine line to toe, and I think it's like half-aspirational, half-satire. People want to be joking, but they kind of also want to be in on the joke," said Tinx.
The 32-year-old digital creator and podcast host was born Christina Najjar. Her alter-ego Tinx was inspired by the character "Tinka Parker" from the 1998 comedy "All I Wanna Do."
"It was an alter-ego kind of like how Beyoncé has 'Sasha Fierce,' and I wasn't very confident, so I came back from summer break and I told all my friends, 'You know when I'm this alter-ego, Tinka Parker' -- I've been called that for almost 20 years now," said Tinx. "I feel like I became her. I became more confident that way. And sometimes you really have to fake it till you make it -- that's something I tell my community all the time, is, We all have those days where we're just not feeling it, but faking it is almost as good."
Tinx has now made it. She has 1.5 million followers on TikTok, where many call her "a big sister" for her life advice.
"Comparison is the thief of joy," said Tinx. "I think that so much of the sadness and anxiety that I had in my 20s was from comparison. I was not only comparing myself to people online, saying 'Oh my God, why don't I look like that? Why don't I have the perfect boyfriend and house and body and whatever,' and I was also comparing myself to my friends, which I think is really common, especially for young people, they feel behind, they think 'I'm not engaged yet,' or 'I hate my job and all my friends love their job,' and what have you. So it really comes down to comparison. Like, don't compare. That will rob you of your joy. You are right where you need to be."
Tinx has admitted in past interviews that comparison led to fatphobic tweets a decade ago that resurfaced. She has since apologized and now focuses on positivity.
"What the internet should be used for is fun and collaboration. I want to look back and say 'Wow, I really did it all. I took advantage of everything that I was offered and given,'" said Tinx.
That has now led to a book that will be released next week called "The Shift: Change Your Perspective, Not Yourself."
"The book is a guidebook for self-esteem," said Tinx. "Specifically in the context of dating. It's really the book that I needed when I was 19 and 24 and honestly still need to read today sometimes. I really think that everyone, but especially women, need to date from a place of abundance. And women need to know that they can make themselves happy and fill up their own cup first before looking elsewhere, because it's cheesy but it's true: No one is going to love you if you don't love yourself.
"We spend so much of our young life going 'Does he like me, does he like me, does he like me?' Never once stopping to say 'Wait, do I even like him?' This isn't a validation thing, this is like, 'I'm choosing a potential life partner' thing. 'I need to think about how they make me feel. Does this person make me feel sparkly, do they fill up my cup?'"
Tinx went through a breakup herself in February, but looks at it differently than she did in the past.
"The shift with a breakup is like, Not be sad that it's over, but be happy that it happened, and I feel grateful that I got to be in love, and spend time with a wonderful person, and just know that there are bigger things coming," said Tinx.
It seems bigger things are coming for Tinx. Besides her book, she recently appeared on "Watch What Happens Live," a full-circle moment, since her idol is Bravo's Andy Cohen. Now she has her own show on Siriux XM on his channel.
