How a ‘horrible’ lawnmower accident inspired this Mooresville native to become Miss NC

It’s Wednesday — the day before Thanksgiving — and technically Taylor Loyd is on holiday recess from UNC Chapel Hill, where she’s studying music with a concentration in classical vocal performance with the goal of becoming a professional opera singer.

But as she describes it, her break doesn’t seem like much of a break so far.

At the moment, Loyd is about to squeeze in an interview at a co-working space on Wilkinson Boulevard, having just come from dropping off assorted music and art supplies for kids at Levine Children’s Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Charlotte. After this, she’s due to hustle over to get ready for a guest appearance at The Novant Health Thanksgiving Eve Parade.

The 22-year-old Mooresville native wears her crown and her sash (and a radiantly red dress) into the building and is almost immediately stopped by an office dweller requesting a selfie.

“We’ve done a couple stops today in Charlotte, so we’re kinda like, Crown on, crown off, crown on —” Loyd explains, breathing a small sigh of relief when she’s told she doesn’t have to keep it on for this chat. “I’m lucky I have a widow’s peak. I have a big old widow’s peak in the middle of my forehead. So I don’t always have to have a mirror to put it on. Kinda figured it out. That’s my life hack!”

She’s had plenty of opportunities to develop and perfect that hack since competing as Miss Statesville on her way to being feted at the state pageant in High Point this past June.

Her hope, however, is that come mid-January, she’ll be trading it in for a much more prestigious tiara: the Miss America crown.

To win, Loyd will need to out-pageant 50 other young women (49 from states plus one from the District of Columbia) converging on the Walt Disney Theater in Orlando, Florida, where they’ll all participate in personal interviews, as well as talent, fitness and evening wear showcases. Grace Stanke of Wisconsin — Miss America 2023 and an engineer that The Wall Street Journal touted earlier this fall as “The New Face of Nuclear Energy” — will crown her successor the weekend of Jan. 13-14.

Miss North Carolina hasn’t won Miss America since Maria Fletcher did it in 1962.

Here are the highlights of our interview with Loyd, who in addition to being an aspiring opera star also has a former beauty queen for a mom and an inspiration for all the charity work she does in her younger brother.

The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q. Before we get into talking about pageants, we should probably talk about your brother Preston, since he’s such an important part of your life and central to your community service initiative as Miss North Carolina. I know it all stems from him being badly hurt at age 4, when a lawnmower accidentally was backed over him. Would you mind giving us the backstory?

Sure, I remember it pretty vividly. I was 7 years old. My parents were at an event in Charlotte and my grandfather was babysitting us, as he always did. We didn’t really have babysitters growing up ’cause we always had my grandparents around. And so my grandfather was mowing the lawn. I was in the home office and I heard Papa call out for me: “Taylor, c’mere, I need you to bring some towels!” I came outside and I saw Preston lying on the garage floor and seeing his body, and it was purple and blue. My grandfather was desperately trying to keep him from losing blood. And I remember them having me get Saran Wrap out of the kitchen to wrap his torso in — so he wouldn’t lose as much blood, so his organs wouldn’t escape his body.

Preston was airlifted to Levine’s in a helicopter and given blood transfusions in the helicopter. At one point, he — medically speaking — died. But they revived him. And he immediately went into some really intense surgeries at Levine. So many things had to go perfectly right for him to live. If one thing had not gone the way that it did, he would not have survived. If the helicopter hadn’t gotten there as it did. If there wasn’t a place for the helicopter to land as close to our house as it was able to. If there wasn’t the right type of blood. All of these pieces that had to come perfectly together for him to even make it.

He lost his stomach, spleen, left kidney and most of his intestines. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury, mostly to the occipital lobe, which is where your brain processes what you see.

Q. How is he doing today?

There are still some ongoing physical issues that he deals with. We found out that his spine had some really significant curvature to the point of needing steel rods to be put in his back. He had scoliosis surgery three or four years ago. Most of the difficulties that he now faces are cognitive. He does have some developmental delays. He is not really able to process what he sees. He’s not able to read or write competently. So when he talks, he doesn’t necessarily come across as your typical 19-year-old.

But he has a really brilliant way of understanding nuanced concepts. I’m working on speaking to a group at Lake Norman High School coming up, and so I was talking to Preston’s teacher in his EC (exceptional children’s) class at Lake Norman, and his teacher was telling me how he asked Preston, “What do you think is more important, art or science?” And he said Preston took a long pause before saying, “Well, I think they’re just one in the same. Aren’t they pretty connected?”

And most of that ability to understand such nuanced concepts comes from his engagement with art and culture. The arts were so helpful in Preston’s recovery. They were so helpful in improving his quality of life. For example, when he was in a coma we were playing CDs for him because that was the only thing that could help him maintain some brain function — because when you listen to music it engages all parts of your brain.

That’s what made me become so interested in the intersection of the arts and health and wellness. Just a couple years after Preston was in the hospital, as a Girl Scout, I started my collecting books and music and art supplies for patients at Levine. That community service project turned into my nonprofit, Healing Hearts Through the Arts, which was formally registered with the state in 2018. The mission is to provide for children in hospitals, veteran centers, and other people that may be in need of music and art supplies.

I was 13 when I did my first pageant, and it really was because I wanted a greater reach to give back.

Q. So do you think the accident changed the trajectory of your life and put you on the path that got you to where you are now? Or do you think that because your mom did pageants (Cinamon Loyd was herself crowned Miss Statesville-Dogwood Festival Queen in 1992, and was Mrs. North Carolina in 1999), you were probably eventually going to give pageants a shot, and that you would have wound up finding pageant success some other way?

I think maybe I could have started competing in pageants eventually. But I don’t think that I would have had the power, the discipline, the grit in the face of adversity to be able to win Miss North Carolina. At least not on my first try. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to make the impact that I’ve been able to make. Because I wouldn’t understand why it would be so important. If that had not happened, I would not understand how to connect with people the way that I do, or how to approach somebody who is going through a really tough situation in a way that is meeting them where they are.

I think that the accident gave me an especially interesting view. It showed how life is not one size fits all. Everybody’s going through something very different. And it’s not our job to know everything, but it is our job to try our best to listen and understand.

I remember the day of the accident, while we were waiting for help, getting my cat and sitting against the garage door and saying to the cat, “It’s gonna be OK. It’s gonna be OK.” And I don’t know why that moment still rings very prominently in my memory, but I think it’s a really interesting example of how things have evolved and how my perception and how the incident struck me is still very much the same. That it’s like, OK, this is this horrible thing that happened, but I want to make sure other people are OK. And I think that maybe that’s why I decided I wanted to give back in the way that I have.

Q. What does Preston think about all of this?

Oh, he loves it.

And I think — when it comes to me talking about him when promoting my service initiative — that it means a lot to him to be seen as a person and not just this person with special needs. Because I think that’s a really big issue. It bothers me when we kinda dehumanize people that have special needs.

I’ve always been very, very conscious that I’m not telling my brother’s story for personal gain. I’m telling it because Preston wants people to know his story, and because it’s important for people to understand the power of the arts, and how they helped him.

Q. OK, this is going to seem like a sharp left turn here, but stay with me for a minute on this. I know you were a good student in high school (she graduated magna cum laude from Iredell-Statesville Schools’ online iAcademy program). I know you did some theater. I know you’re studying opera. I also know this is a bit of a stereotype, but on paper at least, these could be seen as nerdy things. Is there a nerdy side to you?

Oh, I’m totally nerdy. I’m super-dorky. Yeah. When I have the crown on, and kids are around, everybody’s like, “It’s a real-live princess!” And if somebody asks me who my favorite princess is, it’s Princess Leia. The kids always love that. Also, I love listening to my podcasts. I’m a classical musician. So yeah, I’m a big dork.

Q. Here’s why I’m asking: The makeup, the hair, and that kind of thing — is that you, or is part of the reason you’re doing this because it gives you a platform for the causes that you want bring awareness to?

That’s a really great question. One thing that I have kind of struggled with is, you know, I love hiking. I have my Eno, I have my Chacos. I’m a little crunchy-granola. So am I too crunchy-wearing-my-Chacos to be glamorous? At the same time, I’ve always loved doing makeup, because it’s a way to artistically express myself. And some days I’m like, I want the full glam. I want all of it on my face right now. Because it just makes me feel confident in that moment. So am I too glam to be nerdy, dorky, granola?

That really has put me on an interesting thought exercise over the past couple of years. It’s definitely been hard for me to really lean into all of the parts of my identity without feeling afraid that it takes away from another part of my identity.

But now I’m like, why should I have to only be one thing? Why can’t I be dorky and funny and glamorous and like to do my hair and makeup and to get my feet in the mud? There shouldn’t be limits that we put on ourselves to be the idea of one person or another person, because as people we’re all multi-hyphenates, whether we realize it or not.

I’m an opera singer, but I also love classic rock and I’m a huge Swiftie. Most of the time I’m not listening to opera. Most of the time I’m listening to Taylor Swift. So a great thing about being a titleholder is that you can challenge the schema of “this is what a glamorous person looks like.” As a woman — as a person — we can be all of the things that we want to be, and none of the things that we don’t want to be. And none of those things have to go together. The only thing that has to tie them together is the fact that we feel passionate about it and that we love it.

Q. I read a story about how you had always vowed not to do a swimsuit competition but that you made an exception for the 2021 Rhododendron Festival — which you won. Have you struggled at times with the whole notion of pageants being about physical beauty?

Yes. Because as a kid I never saw myself as beautiful. I was the chubby kid. I was made fun of for my weight. It was really challenging for me. I remember watching a pageant as a kid and thinking, II would probably be good at that, but I don’t have the confidence to do that. I’m good enough to do the things that they’re doing, but not to put myself out there.

So I decided that I wanted to do the Rhododendron pageant in particular to prove to myself that I would not be afraid to get up in a swimsuit. Because forever and ever I felt like the thing that would hold me back would be the fear. Just like it was the thing that held me back when I was watching a pageant as a kid and thinking, “Oh, gosh, I could do that, but it’s the confidence that I don’t have.” I knew that if I could do that, then that would prove to myself: Not only do I have the confidence to do anything that I want to do, but I have the power to do it healthily. To do it feeling proud of myself, knowing that I have prioritized my health — my mental health, especially. Not trying to win any award, but just being able to say to myself, I did this. This is kind of crazy and uncomfortable, but I did it.

And I actually won the swimsuit award. That’s probably the only time that will ever happen in my life.

I don’t know if I would necessarily do it again, but it was very freeing.

Q. Last question: What’s your goal for the Miss America pageant in January?

Of course I’m going in wanting to win the job. To be Miss America. That’s been the dream. The thing that I’ve worked toward for so long. But more than anything, I want to walk out of that week knowing that I have done everything I can to be a hundred percent myself.

When I was competing in Miss North Carolina, I remember thinking to myself, Oh my gosh, was I a little too quirky for these judges? Are they not gonna pick me because I’m a little quirky and weird? But then I thought, No! If they don’t pick me because they got to know me, then it’s because they weren’t looking for me. If I pretend to be somebody else and I don’t win, then how will I ever know if I would have won if I had actually just been myself? So I’m trying to be extremely intentional about going into that week as Taylor, and showing them that Taylor can do the job of Miss America — and not trying to be the perfect image of a titleholder so much as be a person that people can look up to. A person that can do the job with integrity.

It’s also really been important to me to think about how this all is going to carry on for my life after my year as Miss North Carolina, or potentially as Miss America. Because it’s a personal development program. If I’m doing all this personal development that’s only going to benefit me for the one year that I have the title, then what’s gonna happen after?

Thinking of it with a really long scope has been helpful and I’m just keeping personal authenticity at the center of everything that I’m doing. And whatever happens happens.

Taylor Loyd in concert

There was so much other ground to cover with Miss North Carolina that we didn’t have much time to talk singing. But if you want to hear her classically trained voice, there are two upcoming opportunities: She’ll perform holiday concerts with the Greensboro Symphony at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 8 at Walter Williams High School in Burlington and at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 9 at Westover Church in Greensboro. The shows are free with a donation of a non-perishable food item. Details: greensborosymphony.org.