Willow Smith, "Whip My Hair"

Singles-especially those performed by preteens-rarely appeal to all demographics while teaching a lesson about self-love, but 9-year-old Willow Smith has accomplished all this on her first try. The daughter of actor/ musicians Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith has shattered expectations with her first track, "Whip My Hair," a high-tempo dance song about self-assurance and letting your hair down in representation of it. "Keep fighting until I get there, when I'm down and I feel like giving up/I whip my hair back and forth, I whip it, I whip it real good," Willow sings over heavy synthesizers and drums. The song's eclectic style works because of its quasi-motivational undertones, as Smith sings in encouragement, "Don't matter if it's long, short." The pint-sized singer says she gets her confidence from her mother, and judging from her infectious first musical offering, it sounds like mama's taught her well.