Violinist Emilie Autumn knew that she would always stick with her convictions. As she steps onto the stage in a corset and combat boots, you can instantly sense she means business. But then you hear beautiful classical music! So, why the get-up?

The classical world was too conservative, and the mainstream wanted to rearrange what she had to offer. She pulled out of a major record label because she refused to change. Emilie knew living life to her own "tune" would eventually strike a chord and she'd find an audience. Taking her strongest inspiration from her mom, this gal with a fiddle is proving that with determination you can have the fairy tale.

Emilie began playing the violin at age 4 and it turned into a lifelong obsession. The talent was apparent and she landed many small gigs while in grade school. But her school life was not very stellar or full of kudos. She received recognition in local papers, which turned into her worst social nightmare. Her classmates were getting jealous. The kids mistook her shyness for being stuck up, and she was beat up frequently. So at the age of 10 her mother agreed to let her be home-schooled. "I ended up reading all the time and becoming as educated as my brothers and sisters who went to traditional schools," explains Emilie. Of course, she spent her free time practicing violin.

Without her strong will, Emilie may not have grabbed the opportunity to get her GED and go to college at an early age. At 15, she enrolled in the College of Indiana School of Music, Bloomington, IN, because she was interested in pursuing jazz. Even though Emilie left the college after two years, she advises aspiring musicians to stay in school.

"[You need to] have something to fall back on. I can definitely say it rounded out my training because it was so rigorous and demanding," Emilie admits. "I don't think anything can quite prepare you for the kind of variety of tasks you'll have to perform in real life like college."

Still, Emilie discovered the lack of attention when you're a jazz violinist. "Not many people cared that I was a 15-year-old girl with a fiddle," Emilie recalls.

Although Emilie's first love is classical music, her ideas of what ought to be done with classical music were always far from the standard format of tuxedos and concert halls. Her biggest influence being Jimi Hendrix, she began to play the electric violin. Performing in corsets and combat boots because she felt she had no sense of style won audiences but irritated the academic big-wigs.

"The 'verbal beatings' I got told me the classical world would never be enough for me and that I'd always struggle with the acceptance of academic people in charge," says Emilie. By the time she was 17, she was ready to move on and forge the career she'd been crafting over the years. She began showing people the other things she'd been working on -- pop songs, Celtic fiddle playing, electronic Hendrix-inspired violin. She was instantly adopted by producers and record labels who saw her marketability.