Derry school girl nets 8million web hits

This is the Derry girl whose home made pop videos have made her an internet sensation.

Thornhill pupil Melissa Colhoun has seen her online stock rise quickly since she first uploaded one of her videos onto the net just over a year ago.

Now the Waterside schoolgirl can boast more than 8million hits and upwards of 50,000 subscribers on file sharing site Youtube. Last week the internet star made her TV debut on RTE’s Apartment Red.

“I never thought it would get so big,” Melissa told the ‘Journal’ this week.

“It just started when me and my friends were going to the park with a camera, and from there we just started putting stuff on youtube.”

But within six months Melissa’s take on hits by artists including Pink, Kesha, Miley Cyrus and Natasha Beddingfield and Flo Rida, had seen her garner more than 20,000 subscribers on Youtube and countless fans and followers on facebook and twitter.

Melissa, who plans to add to her current crop of videos over the coming weeks, says she really enjoys the creative process of movie making.

“It involves downloading the music - it’s not me singing - recording, editing and processing the videos. It’s a total surprise that is has become so popular. My friends like it and some of them are in some of the videos. They think it’s cool,” she says.

Melissa hopes the hobby could lead to a career post school. Her mum Rosie says she is very proud of her daughter’s creativity but she says her daughter’s safety is paramount.

“A lot of people can be very negative about Youtube and we find it very important to monitor all the comments that come in. But there is nothing negative in what Melissa is doing.”

You can check out Melissa’s videos by searching for ‘LittleMissLovelysxx’ on Youtube or following the link at www.derryjournal.com