At the age of 5, after being influenced by the classic music records played by her father, Stirling requested the opportunity to learn and play the violin.

Stirling was classically trained through private lessons for 12 years. When she was 16, she joined a rock band with four friends called Stomp on Melvin. As part of her experience with Stomp on Melvin, Stirling wrote a solo violin rock song, and her performance helped her to win both the title of Arizona's Jr. Miss in 2005 and the talent category of the National Jr. Miss Pageant. As of May 2, 2012, Stirling is 5'3" tall.

Shortly after her performance on America's Got Talent in 2010, cinematographer Devin Graham contacted her via Facebook in hopes of making a YouTube video together. A few months later, Stirling replied to him and they scheduled to shoot a music video for her new song, "Spontaneous Me" It was filmed the week of May 9, 2011 while Graham was on a nearby business trip. The video gave a major boost to Stirling's popularity and she began making music videos for her YouTube channel regularly. Still close friends afterward, Graham eventually moved to Stirling's home state of Utah and they began dating a few days after her "Transcendence" music video was released.

They have been together since, and frequently collaborate on each other's YouTube videos; Graham films almost all of her videos, and Stirling often does backup camera work and assistance for his.

In her performances, Lindsey Stirling has experimented in combining violin with hip hop, DubStep and shuffling. Stirling's collaborations with other musicians and singers have included Shaun Barrowes (on Don't Carry It All--The Decembrists), Eppic (on By No Means), Jake Bruene and Frank Sacramone (on Party Rock Anthem-LMFAO), Peter Hollens (on Skyrim), Alisha Popat and Mackenzie Madsen (on We Found Love), as well as Megan Nicole (on Starships).