If only everyone’s best intentions were enough when it came to The Children. You may have heard of Victoria Pike, a.k.a. Vicky P, from her YouTube video “No Bullying,” a short but effective look at the issue from a child’s-eye view and one that actually lightens the heaviness of the kiddie-trap beat by allowing Vicky to try and understand her tormentor: “His shoes even got a hole, you can see his feet/ They probably starvin’ when he’s home, you should see him eat!” The rest of her debut more or less works off the same formula, right down to the verbal hooks that sound like they were sung by Vicky’s mom (and if they aren’t, they should be).

As an experiment in middle-school rap, it’s fairly successful, definitely earwormy enough to crawl onto the radio. The overwhelming life-coach motivation of the lyrics can get a little oppressive at times—songs titled “Unstoppable,” “Successful” and “Dreams” are all over this one—but when it backs off a little and just has fun it goes down a lot easier: “No Bullying” is naturally bookended with a Pt. II “bonus track,” and “Simon Says” takes the schoolyard game and turns it into a pep talk, if not exactly a TED Talk.

Oddly, it’s Vicky herself who comes out underserved on Can’t Hold Me Back: It’s not that she can’t sing, but she’s Auto-Tuned so heavily it’s impossible to tell. In the end, “Dear Parents” is the one song that seems like it comes from her own life, ironic because she spends most of it thanking Mom and Dad; nevertheless, a little less stage mothering and studio fathering would probably go a long way towards making her the juvenile Beyoncé she’s having all those unstoppable success dreams about.