Bothell High grad goes viral as Boise State’s goth volleyball player

By Callie Holtermann / © 2024 The New York Times Company

Nora Hayd’s eyeliner traced a dramatic path from her tear ducts to her eyebrow piercings. Her bangs were dyed hot pink, and a septum ring dangled from her nose.

In other words, the Bothell High School graduate was ready for her college beach volleyball team’s photo shoot.

“That makeup is not my full makeup; I definitely pulled back,” Hayd, 19, said in an interview Tuesday in which she discussed her widely-shared headshot.

Hayd, a sophomore at Boise State University and a member of the school’s Division I women’s beach volleyball team, has earned fans far beyond Idaho, thanks to her distinctive look, which began circulating on social media last week.

In screenshots of her team’s roster, Hayd easily stands out among the blondes and brunettes with far subtler hair and makeup. She was quickly nicknamed the “Goth beach volleyball player,” or “Gothlete” for short.

The look was not particularly extreme for Hayd, who grew up just outside Seattle, in an area with no shortage of alternative fashion. Its reception has been both overwhelming and mildly amusing, she said as she reflected on the situation during a break between her painting and ceramics classes. (She is a visual arts major.)

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: How did you settle on a look for your roster photo?

A: I knew I wanted my hair fresh, and really as bright as I could make it. I just wanted to look as much like myself as I could, and also not distract from the fact that I do play beach volleyball. I wanted a nice mix of both of my lives, I guess.

Q: Do you do your makeup yourself?

A: I do. I’m self-taught. I started in my senior year of high school. It kind of became a ritual every morning; it would be a meditative thing.

Q: On a scale of 1 to 10, how intense is this makeup look for you?

A: Like, a solid 4.

Q: A lot of people online have described your style as “Goth.” Is that a word you’d use?

A: I don’t want to confine myself to one label, because I like the freedom to change my aesthetic, and I don’t want to confine myself to one box. But I’m not mad about it.

Q: How did you develop your personal style?

A: Both my parents are artists, and I just grew up encouraged to create. I moved to Bothell in fourth grade, and living in the Seattle area really inspired me. I started to surround myself with other artists, so I was in a constant state of evolving and growing ideas.

Q: Is this how you typically look when you’re playing beach volleyball?

A: No, I don’t wear any makeup. I’m wearing sunscreen, I’m wearing sunglasses, I wear a visor, so my face is pretty protected from the elements. Since I’m in school, it’s not really practical for me to get in my whole get-up most days, since I have class and practice all day. But on the weekends, I try and dress up, and I use that time to grow my style.

Q: What do you like to wear?

A: Well, my favorite color is black. I really like a dark and epic look.

Q: When did you find out that your picture was getting a lot of attention online?

A: I was in a film study meeting with my whole team, and I was telling one of my teammates that I was so confused why my Instagram was blowing up. And Allison [Voigt, her team’s head coach] turned to me and showed me Twitter and was like, “You’re going viral. You have 2 million views right now.” I was just in shock. I didn’t know what to do or what was going to happen from this.

Q: Have you gotten any interest in sponsorships or NIL (name, image and likeness) deals?

A: Yeah, I’ve gotten a couple. Hot Topic actually reached out first, so I’m super excited about that deal. And I’m working on making new merch, and also helping to design it.

Q: How did you get into beach volleyball?

A: I played indoor volleyball for 10 years before I switched to beach. I went to Dakine Volleyball Club, and then I got recruited to Boise State. And here I am.

Q: Why do you think your photo took off the way it did?

A: I think there’s a lot of stereotyping around beach volleyball, and then also Boise. I’m in a really strange spot for my style.

Q: How much room do you feel like there is in the sport for personal expression?

A: I think there is as much room as you want there to be. A lot of people do put limits on it, but they don’t need to. Being an athlete, you compare yourself to other athletes — you try to be like them. I guess that looking like them also becomes a factor. But I haven’t let that change my physical likeness.

Q: What color will your hair be next?

A: It’s purple right now. But I’m planning on red for the beach volleyball season in the spring.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.