Featured Image Credit: TLC
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Shauna Rae
Anish Vij
TV star Shauna Rae has revealed how she susses out any 'creeps' who want to date her.
The 23-year-old stands at three feet and 10 inches tall after treatment for brain cancer when she was six months old stunted her growth.
It caused damage to her pituitary gland which developed into pituitary dwarfism.
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The condition means she weighs just 50 pounds and stands at the average height of an eight-year-old.
Now star of TLC reality series I Am Shauna Rae, she has found it tough to find love.
In her search, Shauna says she's found a way of spotting those 'who may not have the best intentions'.
“I’ve just developed the ability to spot someone who may not have the best intentions because they give themselves away,” she told the NY Post.
“Their questions are very targeted towards my physicality.
"They’re learning about me like I’m a specimen in a lab.”
Alluding to her daily struggles, the 23-year-old said: “I’ve had multiple issues with people not believing me when I told them my age.
“One thing that happened recently was I went to a [lab] to get my blood taken.
“I was trying to leave, but some employee wouldn’t allow me to, because they thought I was a child leaving without a parent.
“They all denied the fact that I was an adult, and they would not let me leave the property without an adult to take me home.
“It got to the point where I had to leave when they weren’t looking. It was so extreme.”
She says if you 'take the time to look at the details in my face' you'll know that she isn't an eight-year-old.
“If you look at me, you see an 8-year-old,” Shauna said.
“But I think if you take the time to look at the details in my face, in my hands, the maturity in my body — and I think if you take the time to actually talk to me — you really understand that I’m a 23-year-old.”
The TLC star admits that it's 'painful when society doesn’t accept you for who you are'.
“I want people to not question me when I say who I am. I’m OK with showing proof, if necessary. But if you’re a typical regular Joe off the street, then you need to take me at my word,” she concluded.