The previous version had met your goals better - "youthful, vibrant look" as you said.
Also it was better because of bigger fonts. Teenagers read web sites different, they are lesser focused. Jakob Nielsen wrote about it in
Usability of Websites for Teenagers.
Now your site looks more professional but it has lost something, it's not you. It tries to look "appropriate" somehow...
One advice more. Don't try to fix everything at once, work in small steps and then compare. So it's easier to return to the previous version. When you try to fix all at once you quickly get overwhelmed.