I was an avid reader. My parents love to read, and I learned by their example. In elementary school, I loved the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. I read the whole original series. In seventh and eighth grades, I read everything I could find by Madeline L'Engle.
Adolescence is an emotionally intense time of life, and adolescents are emotionally intense people.
Also, no one tells you that adolescence lasts til you're about thirty. I took a class on adolescence when I was in college. It lasted, like, ten more years. I had always heard that in researching where to send a manuscript, you should look for a publisher who is publishing books like yours, and furthermore, for your manuscript even to be considered, it must be completely unique. As serious as the themes are, they never overshadow the story, and the story itself provoked a very strong emotional reaction in me.