GRAZIA INTERVIEW
In her new book, The Shift, Tinx, aka Christina Najjar, dispels the traditional timeline for women in their twenties and thirties. She tells Jessica Barrett why she thinks ‘influencer’ is now a dirty word
EVERY MONDAY WITHOUT fail, Tinx does an ‘AMA’ or Ask Me Anything with her 540,000 followers on Instagram. The questions are varied, to put it mildly. One week they included a request for help with a blow-job, bridesmaids falling out over money, and a quandary from one follower who had been dating a guy for a month yet he still didn’t follow her on Instagram. Tinx, real name Christina Najjar, has made doling out such advice the basis of her brand – so much so that she has collated all of her dating theories and words of wisdom into a book, The Shift.
Now 32, Tinx explains that she feels even more qualified for her role as the ‘big sister of TikTok’ than she was when the name was coined by her followers three years ago. She says, ‘When I started writing [the book], I thought, “Oh, this will be a cute handbook, a cute guide to life.” And then when I was done writing it, I realised how important it is that we rewire women’s brains because I realised how much time I spent in my twenties chasing guys who didn’t like me, and worrying that I wasn’t valid because I didn’t have a boyfriend.’ It is her mission, she explains, to stop women believing that their lives are only meaningful if they tick off marriage and children at the same time their friends do; this is ‘the shift’ in her book. ‘Once you get over that hump of realising that it doesn’t matter when you get married. Once you have that talk with yourself, and you really believe it, it is the most freeing, incredible peace that you can give yourself. I really believe in the power of just shifting your perspective, and then those tiny shifts can really amount to a massive change in how you feel every day.’
Single but dating (she recently admitted she has dated music producer Diplo), Tinx says she is approached regularly by followers who want her to know that her posts have meant they finally feel validated for being single in their thirties. ‘I’m really excited to find a partner to be with for a long time,’ she says. ‘But I’m not going to cry myself to sleep until I find them. I’m urging everyone to lean into that nuance.’
It’s been three years since Tinx posted her first TikTok and her life changed. Born in Washington DC and raised in London, Tinx moved to California at 19 to study English literature and creative writing at Stanford University, before embarking on a freelance writing career. When she started making TikToks, she realised she could turn it into a career. ‘I finally had this feeling that I’d been searching for; this is when people say that they love their job.’
The brand collaborations have followed thick an
