Art, music, family: ‘Those are things I can’t live without’

Sanfordville Elementary School third grader Lina Lauritsen has a lovely life.

Just ask her.

Or take a look at her YouTube channel or her blog, which are both called “Lina’s Lovely Life.”

“My channel is about my lovely life,” Lina wrote in the description of her first video. “I hope you like this video and comment down below what do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a singer and actress.”

‘Into the Unknown’

Lina said she has been singing since she was 2 or 3 years old. Her family has a video of her singing at that age.

“I don’t know whose idea the singing was, but I like music and I’ve been doing it ever since then,” Lina said. “There’s never, ever in our house no music, because I’m always singing. I just love art and music. Those are like things I can’t live without – besides my family.”

In her first YouTube video, Lina performed “Into the Unknown” from Frozen II.

She also submitted an audition video of her singing the song to “America’s Got Talent.”

Lina got the idea for creating a YouTube channel after watching many how-to videos and music videos. She thought it would be fun to have her own channel to share her life.

In her second video, she tells viewers a little about herself and then plays the French folk song “Alouette” on the piano. Lina has been taking piano lessons for about five years.

‘Kind and thoughtful’

“Lina is such a motivated young lady,” Sanfordville music teacher Alison Echevarria said. “She is kind and thoughtful and works hard. She also shows an enthusiasm for music and is always ready to participate. She brings her positive attitude to class and is excited to share her thoughts and ideas.”

Lina also enjoys art, both in school and at home. She decorated the front of her pink art folder at school by drawing pictures of a pencil, a bike, a microphone, a music note and a computer monitor with the words: “Youtube” and “Blog.”

One of the pictures inside the folder is a drawing of Lina and her family, including Max the cat (sitting on a cloud above the family), her dogs Sasha and Coco and Bob the fish in a tank.

“I wanted to give that drawing to my family because they are very, very, special,” Lina said, “just like art and music.”

‘Paying attention to detail’

Lina has many notebooks that she brings to restaurants or other places where she’s sitting, so she can sketch and draw. She also draws pictures when making her own birthday cards and gifts.

“Lina is a talented artist and a hard worker,” Sanfordville art teacher Leah Mednick said. “What is so special about Lina is her positive attitude. I have known Lina for four years, and every morning she visits me to discuss artwork or tell me about what she and her brother created over the weekend. Lina will bring artwork she made at home in to school just to show me. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, she lets me keep it! She loves painting, drawing and paying attention to detail.”