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A rare illness may have stopped Keenan Cahill from growing beyond a very small size, but it certainly has not prevented him from gaining global fame through his funny music videos posted on YouTube.

This 16-year-old from the US state of Illinois has made a name for himself by imitating the stars.

He looks directly at the camera from behind his thick glasses, and then the show starts. He rolls his eyes, makes faces, moves his shoulders, puts his head to one side and lip-syncs.

In the background, there is an untidy child’s room. In the foreground, Cahill’s round face uses playback to imitate pop stars like Katy Perry, Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and rapper 50 Cent.

Lots of teenagers post homemade videos on the Internet in the hope of getting famous. Keenan, who is only 1.25 meters tall due to the rare Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome, stands far above the rest of the crowd.

The teenager, who lives near Chicago with his mother and a younger sister, is a YouTube hit. His viral videos have been played millions of times, and he has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. He is invited to talk shows, takes the stage at nightclubs and meets celebrities who shoot videos and adverts with him.

However, success appears not to have gone to his head — yet.

“I really don’t know why people like it so much,” he said.

It is not easy to interview Cahill, as his agenda is packed, but he has no trouble remembering how it all happened.

“I got a desktop computer for my 13th birthday, and then I recorded myself and I put it on YouTube and it got really big!” he recalls enthusiastically.

His initially small fan community suddenly grew huge when Katy Perry came across Cahill’s version of her hit Teenage Dream. She liked it, and she tweeted Keenan a delighted “I heart you.” That was last September and since then, Cahill’s Katy Perry playback has been played more than 40 million times.

Only a few months earlier, he was forced to excuse himself before fans for a brief break in his video production. He showed the camera a fresh scar at the back of his head, left over from brain surgery.

The disease that Cahill was born with leads to bone malformations and a short stature. The head is often oversized, the body is stocky and life expectancy is brief.

He has to go to the doctor every week. He has already had surgery nine times, and he is set to undergo another operation in late June, on his knees and hips.

Cahill is nonetheless determined to live his life to the fullest.

“The disease never holds me back,” he said, adding that his parents treat him “like a regular kid.” He goes to school, although his everyday life is no longer quite normal.

On weekends, he flies off to perform or appear on shows — in the Bahamas, Las Vegas or Los Angeles.

“Britney Spears asked me to do something for her and we’ll try to meet in a couple weeks,” he said.

He already linked up with Spears, via satellite, for Cahill’s version of her hit “Till The World Ends.”

With Nick Cannon, the husband of Mariah Carey, the teenager “sync’d” the song “Famous.” He did an advert with Jennifer Aniston, and he advertised 3D glasses for Justin Bieber’s biopic.

Rapper 50 Cent likes the young impersonator too. In one video, in his room, Cahill moves his lips to “Down on Me” as the hip hop star suddenly comes in and completes the song live.

The youngster said he does not suffer from stage fright.

“Usually, I am not nervous,” he said about his meetings with the stars.

“Celebrities are all the same people, like us,” he added.

He is similarly laid-back about his own performances before the Webcam.

“It comes natural, I just wing it.”

He does not usually rehearse a lot, but just gets going.

Cahill does not want to stop at lip syncs, however.

“I can sing, and I have a single coming out this summer,” he says.

Not everything is perfect, though. The YouTube star does not only have fans — there are also angry voices who slam him as an untalented freak.

“I do get hate mail sometimes, but I don’t listen to that.”

He can certainly keep himself happy with the thousands of messages from his admirers. One female fan recently wrote on his YouTube site that she loved his “cool” videos, and she had more than that to say.

“P.S. Thank you for showing me that dreams can come true,” she added. 

DPA