She’s TV’s biggest small star.
Pint-sized Shauna Rae is fast becoming a household name because of her hit reality series airing on TLC.
“I Am Shauna Rae” revolves across the exploits of the Long Island local who insists she’s just like every other young millennial — save for the very fact she looks like an 8-year-old.
Rae weighs just 50 kilos and stands at 3-foot-10 as a consequence of treatment she received for childhood brain cancer.
But what the blond lacks in height, she makes up for in personality — pleased to indicate off for the cameras as she tackles on a regular basis activities comparable to driving and dating.
Rae told The Post that she’s continuously underestimated and excluded due to her appearance, but that hasn’t stopped her from going after what she wants.
“When you have a look at me, you see an 8-year-old,” she said. “But I believe for those who take the time to have a look at the small print in my face, in my hands, the maturity in my body — and I believe for those who take the time to really discuss with me — you actually understand that I’m a 23-year-old.”
Why does Shauna Rae look so young?
Rae has a rare medical condition stemming from chemotherapy treatment for brain cancer on the age of 6 months.
The treatment impacted her pituitary gland, resulting in a dramatic stunt in her growth and causing pituitary dwarfism. She’s been in full remission from cancer for years.
She began taking growth hormones at 8; nonetheless, on/off treatment was stopped permanently when she reached puberty.
“I reached the finish line, you can say,” Rae told The Post.
Who’s Shauna Rae’s boyfriend?
Rae recently made headlines after her burgeoning romance with travel blogger Dan Swygart, 26, raised eyebrows amongst viewers.
Rae and Swygart were seen on dates in the course of the second season of the TLC series, prompting some critics to call the male suitor “creepy” for lusting after a woman who looks like a young girl.
Nevertheless, Rae told The Post that she has the flexibility to suss out creeps after years of being a singleton — meaning she gave Swygart a green light.
“I’ve just developed the flexibility to identify someone who may not have the perfect intentions because they provide themselves away,” she said. “Their questions are very targeted toward my physicality … They’re learning about me like I’m a specimen in a lab.”
She also stated that prospective partners have often talked right down to her as if she were a third-grader.
“I view myself as intelligent, and I believe when people first see me, they don’t see me as intelligent,” the star asserted. “They still don’t understand that I even have that intelligence there.”
“I are likely to find guys which are just one-dimensional and don’t even have any depth to the conversation. [A deeper connection] is what I’m searching for. I feel like: ‘If I can teach you something, you possibly can teach me something’ — that’s what I search for in relationships.”
Within the second season of “I Am Shauna Rae,” prospective boyfriend Swygart — who hails from the UK — even won the praise of Rae’s parents when he met them.
The chivalrous gent also took to social media to defend their dates together earlier this week.
“It’s very vital to do not forget that Shauna is an incredible 23-year-old woman who has a disability,” he said. “In order you might be constructing a connection along with her, it’s vital to acknowledge her disability and look past that and construct it with who she is as a person.”
He continued: “As soon as you say that she will be able to’t have a real-world reference to another person, you dehumanize her. She is a human being. She deserves to have relationships and connections with whoever she wants.”
Over the weekend, he moreover scolded haters for his or her “absolutely disgusting” remarks concerning the pair’s friendship.
“How dare you’re taking away her right, her human right, to have a connection, a friendship, a relationship with another person?” he railed on Instagram. “Who’re you to say she will be able to’t have that? I’m absolutely disgusted by some people’s attitude toward her and my friendship along with her. I cannot consider some individuals who deny her the appropriate to have a friendship or a reference to another person.
“How dare you? How dare you?” he implored.
Amid all the general public response, Swygart has returned to the UK, while Rae stays on Long Island and the state of their romance stays up within the air.
What does Shauna Rae do for a job?
Rae hopes to overcome the world of showbiz.
The previous coffee shop employee — who shares details of her life on social media, via TikTok and Instagram — is an aspiring actress and said she hopes that her reality series may also help springboard her to stardom.
However the Latest Yorker — who lives at home along with her mom and stepdad — can also be aiming to finish another less-lofty goals within the near future, comparable to getting her driver’s license.
Rae was seen behind the wheel of a Chevy on this season of her show, where she used hand controls since she’s too short to make use of pedal extensions.
Perhaps most significantly, though, the star is fighting simply to be seen and brought seriously.
Her short stature means many query her actual age and identity, making it feel almost unattainable to purchase alcohol and even schedule her own appointments with doctors.
“I’ve had multiple issues with people not believing me after I told them my age. One thing that happened recently was I went to a [lab] to get my blood taken,” she told The Post. “I used to be trying to depart, but some worker wouldn’t allow me to because they thought I used to be a toddler leaving and not using a parent.”
Rae offered to indicate them her ID, and she or he also identified that she has tattoos and piercings. But the worker got their supervisor.
“All of them denied the incontrovertible fact that I used to be an adult, and they’d not let me leave the property without an adult to take me home,” she said. “It got to the purpose where I had to depart after they weren’t looking. It was so extreme.”
The experience left her feeling quite distraught.
“It’s painful when society doesn’t accept you for who you might be,” she said. “I need people to not inquire from me after I say who I’m. I’m OK with showing proof, if obligatory. But for those who’re a typical regular Joe off the road, then you want to take me at my word.”