Born and raised in Mission Viejo, California, Kina is proof positive that you can build a career on YouTube, if you work at it long enough.

Kina has come a long way from the 4-year-old who performed to an audience of stuffed animals; these days she's playing to sold out crowds and has over 143k followers on Twitter.

Her YouTube channel contains a wealth of original music, as well as an extensive library of refreshingly innovative covers, like this one:

During her four years as a full-time student at USC, she managed to find time to record  and self-release three EPs. She got her start on YouTube when she entered Doritos’ 'Crash The Super Bowl' contest, which got her a lot of attention, and a lot of followers.

In a brilliant move, she launch a campaign called 'Two Weeks For Kina,' where she made daily music videos in exchange for contest votes. Her video entry, titled, 'Message From Your Heart' aired during the Super Bowl for 97 million people. She was the #1 video on Digg.com, and had quickly become beloved by a quickly growing fan base.

After a short time with a label, Kina decided to go it on her own with the self-funded and independently-released 2010 album 'Stairwells,' named after the place she practiced her craft in college.  The album reached #5 on the Billboard Top 200 and was featured on the iTunes Pop Chart. She appeared in The New York Times, and WNYC Soundcheck named her as one of the top Asian-Americans in pop music.

She's headlined tours all over America, Europe and Asia, and her YouTube channel currently has over 450,000 subscribers. Her videos have been viewed 75 million times. We can't wait to see what's next for this talented beauty, in the meantime, check out more of her below.

Kinna Grannis Pics
Sam Fu Photography/Facebook
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Kinna Grannis Pics
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Kinna Grannis Pics
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