21 Apr 2020 1939 0  

Throughout history, women have been leading all sorts of titles and positions in spite of the prevailing norm that some jobs are not suited for women. We’ve seen many remarkable women breaking the stereotypes and conquering the world at NASA, manual labor workshops, and on the streets. Today, we get to meet one of our extraordinary girls: Shahinaz Hussein, the girl behind the wheel. Shahinaz leads an interesting career as an automotive journalist and a test car driver, she also founded a content creation agency along with working as an operation manager in another company. We feature her today to talk about her inspiring life and how she managed to stand her ground and become who she is today.

 

So, Shahinaz, we’re very happy to have you today, tell us a little about yourself: how old are you? What do you do for a living and how long have you been the girl behind the wheel?

I'm 34 years old. I have three jobs, I am an automotive journalist in two Egyptian publications, I started this job in 2005. I also lead the operations of a company that has an online dating mobile app. I founded an agency that does content creation and media services two years ago. I also freelance a few other projects. Girl Behind The Wheel was born two and a half years ago.

 

That is really impressive, tell me more about Girl Behind The Wheel, how did it all start?

It started from a family that loves cars, I've always been around cars. My father and my brother both had a passion for cars and worked in the field as freelancers, they had a big influence on me and I had several opportunities to see and drive exceptional cars at an early age. Writing has been my passion since I was 7 years old, so it was only natural to seek writing about cars since I started working professionally in 2004 and I never stopped since.

That sounds great, how did the people around you react when you decided to go public and start a page?

It was normal for me to start to have an online presence since I've been a journalist in the newspaper for more than 12 years at that point. Nowadays people are moving away from newspapers towards social media, so it was only a matter of time before I had to make the move as well.

 

And how are you recieved in the car testing community since it is mostly run by men?

People still get shocked that a girl knows so much and has so much passion about cars. I am, however, very well respected and I never had any bad reception from my male collegues, on the contrary they all support me and give me positive feedback on my work. By the way most of my followers and readers are males not females

 

And what about male competition, how do you handle it?

Our field is not governed by competition, on the contrary, most people in our field are friends and we all work together. Whenever we are in an event or in a test drive, we help each other take pictures and produce content. It’s a very friendly environment.

 

And the people close to you, are they supportive of what you do?

Yes! Absolutely! I wouldn't have made it without their support.

That’s awesome, so what are the challenges that you actually face?

Convincing others that I can drive and will not crash the car.

Finally, do you have a message you'd like to say to girls?

Just that they should not believe anyone who says they shouldn't or can't do something or the other. Don't believe them when they say it’s a man's job. If you have a dream, go after it and chase it and you will get there.

What about the community? Do you have something to tell them?

I appreciate all the support and love I get from my community and I will always do my best to support everyone in it as well.

We enjoyed our lovely chat with Shahinaz, we hope she inspired you just as she inspired us. This is a shout out to our Shahinaz Hussein and every girl working on a dream. AttaGirl!

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