The essay is rather formulaic. There’s the attention-grabbing intro, a story, then fitting the story into a bigger picture of the writer’s goals, character, or other attractive trait, and finally the wrap up.
The topic or story can be mundane, like raising houseplants, but the intro needs to be really over the top and the whole piece needs a lot of enthusiasm.
You can’t look at a collection of current essays and not see the formula.
https://apply.jhu.edu/apply/essays-that-worked/
I don’t see these essays as kids being themselves. It’s more like kids being their Facebook- or Instagram-selves, extra image-conscious and polished up. It’s a marketing come-on after all: these kids want colleges to pick them after all.