'All Girls' Tire Shop Thriving in Texas

Sept. 12, 2012 — -- At first look, Treds Tire and Wheel in San Antonio seems familiar. Stacks of tires surround busy workers doing repairs, rotations and fixing flats. But a closer look reveals some unusual details.

The tire jack is pink, the tools have polka dots, and all of the employees are women.

"I'm a strong believer that women can do things that men can do," Andrea Rodriguez, the manager, told ABCNews.com. "I have four brothers so I was raised with that mentality. I can do things that my brothers could do."

Rodriguez is 19. When her family told her they wanted to open a tire shop in a building where several consecutive tire businesses had failed, she asked her mother, "Why not make it different and make it all girls?"

"She started getting on Facebook to recruit some people and put in ads and there was a lot of female applicants that wanted to do it and didn't mind the work," said Rodriguez's mother, Margaret.

"We didn't paint a pretty picture," she said. "It's a man's job -- dirty, tiring. There's nothing easy about it."

The applications poured in and the shop now employs six women and a female intern from a local college.

Margaret Rodriguez said that the clients are a good mix of men and women. She said most people are excited about the shop and supportive, but there are some detractors. She said some have said the women should not be doing a man's job and that they should be in the kitchen "making sandwiches," but the negativity makes the women work harder.

"We just think it's funny, but, actually, it gives us more willpower and incentive to keep going."

One of Andrea Rodriguez's brothers trained her and she now runs the business. She plans on going to school to become a dentist, but is working at the shop full-time for now.

She said she does not aim to be a role model, but hopes that she can help change people's stereotypes about women.

"Everyone has their own opinions about women doing a man's job -- if it's even a man's job," she said. "We have women doing it."

The shop has been open for seven months and Margaret Rodriguez said that business is thriving.

"For us, it was like a miracle," she said. "We're very fortunate."