in the way I do my hair in the way I dress and even in high school I'd wear

like knee high socks that usually didn't match

you know I did this hairstyle that I called the peacock. I still do it today

and in high school I remember I thought it was so cool and I kept waiting for

it to catch on like oh everybody else is going to do this. It never caught on.

(a forte for the violin, quirky style, and funky dance steps draws millions - and millions - of youtube views for BYU student Lindsey Stirling.)

I love to take the violin to places that it's not expected to go both geographically and musically.

And that's what I do through my YouTube videos I do everything from

rock and roll to dub step to hip hop and you know you name it I've probably played it.

My parents always played classical music in our home and my sisters and I would

dance around our living room to Scheherazade and Mozart and Beethoven

you name it and we would dance to it. I could just see that the violins always

got the best parts.So, at the age of five I started to begging my parents for lessons.

a tight budget limited Lindsey to one 15 minute lesson a week. yet years later she performed a self-composed violin-rock number in America's junior Miss Pageant - and won runner up in the talent competition.

I first started writing hip hop music when I was a sophomore in

college and I would basically just write songs to my favorite radio hits and after

doing one of these, I threw up a video on YouTube and I was just dancing around

playing my violin like I always do

and shortly thereafter I went on my mission.

And while I'm walking the streets of Manhattan as a little sister missionary

suddenly a couple of people stopped me and recognized me as the "violin girl."

That first video, sister Stirling discovered, had gone viral. After she returned from her mission she was invited to audition for America's Got Talent.

And everybody kind of asks me or says "You're so lucky that you had this

lucky break on America's Got Talent."

Yeah, that was awesome but

it's only after doing YouTube and

making YouTube videos that

my music sells

and I get offers to play

in amazing places

I did a dub step

video where I went to Colorado and I was in this awesome ice world

and I did a Lord of the Rings medley and I filmed it in the beautiful landscape of New Zealand

I also had the opportunity recently to go to Kenya and I got to take my violin with me

and I got to play for people in these villages that have never heard of

violin before.

And to see the smiles on their faces and to watch their kids giggle you know

like what is this thing?

It was just an incredible experience to share something that's so

important to me and then in return they sang for us and they did these dances

As a violinist I've been told by all the industry experts that what I do is not

a marketable thing. Even on live TV I was told on America's Got Talent by the judges that

what I was doing would never make it, I would never be able to be a performer.

But I think that when you do what you love

people are drawn to you.

There's been times when I've put myself in boxes.

And I'm not happy in boxes.

And I think that's what is amazing is that

if you really are true to yourself you're going to be able to

better share your gifts with the world.

God created us all with distinctive characteristics.

When we're not afraid to let those shine, that's really when I think

we can be the best instruments in his hands

that we can be.

"Wanna' keep going?"