A QUEEN’S DUTIES: THE BUSY LIFE OF MISS FLORIDA
An hour in the life of Jupiter’s own Miss Florida.
Here she is …
It’s 10:45 a.m., in mid-August, the hot and waning days of summer vacation, but already Taylor Tyson, your Miss Florida, is chipper, awake and in full makeup and tiara in the green room at West Palm Beach’s WPTV.
The interview the Jupiter resident’s about to do with anchor Hollani Davis is actually her second official appearance of the day, having first stopped by for a proclamation from the Palm Beach County Commission — “It’s Taylor Tyson Day!” she says, beaming. “Isn’t that cool?”
Yesterday, she was in the northern part of the state talking to schoolchildren. Tomorrow, she’ll be in Miami and then in Orlando. After that? “I don’t even know,” the 23-year-old admits.
In January, Taylor, was crowned Miss South Florida Fair, under which title she spread goodwill and positivity across the county. After graduating summa cum laude from Florida Atlantic University this year, she was supposed to be starting law school at DeLand’s Stetson University.
But since becoming the first Miss South Florida Fair to winning the Miss Florida scholarship money, and taking home every other of the program’s auxiliary honors from swimsuit to commu-
nity service, she’s got a new job. Pretty much every minute of her day, every mile she’s driven and every flash of her camera-ready smile is set in one direction — to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where she hopes to realize “a childhood dream” — to be the one that iconic song is talking about when it heralds “There she is, Miss America.”
In the meantime, Taylor is holding on to the advice she received from a group of former Miss Florida titleholders, on yet another trip around the state: “Be in the moment. Embrace it, because it all goes by very quickly.”
“Some people think she just sits with a crown and doesn’t do anything. They’re wrong,” says Theresa LePore, director of the Miss South Florida Fair pageant.
Becoming Miss Florida just months into her reign left the Miss South Florida Fair crown without a head to rest on (”All the runnersup have other titles, too,” LePore explains), but as Miss Florida, she’s not getting any rest, either. But that’s all part of the job, which is changing right in front of her.
“It’s really Miss America 2.0,” Taylor says, as LePore straightens her sash. And truly it is.
When she hits Atlantic City for the Sept. 9 pageant, she and the other contestants are the first participants of the #MeToo era. For the very first time since the program’s early origins as a contest of bathing beauties parading up and down the boardwalk, Miss America will eschew the swimsuits in favor of an inner focus, including a longer interview “that’s more of a conversation than just one question,” Taylor says. “I like it.”
While some of the previous titleholders aren’t fans of the new rules, Taylor’s excited. “This class of women I’m in is having a unique experience,” she says. “Change can be positive.”
As she waits to go onto the set, she darts around the room, chatting with parents Staci and Frank Tyson and Adell Roscoe of the Miss Florida program about the interview and what’s next. She also makes instant friends with another guest, Delray Beach fashion designer and former “Project Runway” contestant Amanda Perna.
“I don’t even know you, and I’m proud of you!” Perna says, hugging Taylor.
So much has happened to get her to this point. She started the pageants at 8 years old. Around the same time, she began training as a concert pianist, which meant six or seven hours a day of grueling practice literally working her fingers to the bone. She planned to become a professional concert pianist, choosing to finish high school online so she could focus on her playing.
But the law took hold, and while she was finishing her undergraduate degree with a 4.0 GPA and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor fraternity, Taylor was also big into philanthropy, volunteering at schools and running the Beethoven Beatles Foundation started by her family. Don’t forget the practicing for a pageant. Obviously she’s a multitasker, so if the next couple of weeks are crazy, she can probably handle it.
And for the next few minutes, Taylor’s job is this interview. She, her mother and LePore walk down to the set, where a mic pack is carefully clipped onto her back.
She gets a warm hello from longtime WPTV anchor John Favole and then sits to talk to Davis about the pageant, about the changes and about the “Mephisto Waltz,” the Franz Liszt piece she’ll be playing.
“You’ll have to come back if you win Miss America!” Favole calls across the set.
“When she wins,” LePore corrects him, smiling. Taylor nods.
“Speak that into the universe,” she says, walking back to the green room to kiss her father, who tells her she did well. After this, she’s planning to head down the street to Subculture Coffee, because designer Perna told her “that they have lavender coffee, so we’re going there.” And after that?
“I don’t think I have anything else today.” She turns to her mother. “I don’t, do I?”
And that’s fine. She’s got more than enough to keep her busy.