How a six-year-old Russian girl became YouTube’s most popular child star

Anastasia with her father Yuri. While Nastya is hardly the first youngster to earn laughs online by mock disciplining a naughty parent, she has achieved a level of global stardom that is rare for artists of any age. Depending on the month, 'Like Nastya' has been the third- or fourth-most-popular channel on YouTube in the world, according to SocialBlade. — Instagram/@likenastya

In a video posted online in December, Anastasia Radzinskaya, a six-year-old YouTube star who goes by Nastya, plays a tough-talking cop. At the start of the skit, the pixyish blond performer looks in the mirror and pulls on a police cap.

"I’m going to teach you a lesson, criminals,” she says, rapping a toy baton in the palm of her hand. For the next several minutes, she patrols a street, blowing a traffic whistle, brandishing her shiny police badge and sternly laying down the law.