25-year-old woman explains condition that makes her ‘look like an 8-year-old’
Topics: Health, Shauna Rae, TLC
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: TLC
Topics: Health, Shauna Rae, TLC
A 25-year-old woman has explained how she wasn't born with a condition that has stunted her growth, but instead developed it at a young age.
For almost the entirety of her life, Shauna Rae has been much smaller than her friends and family, and she was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism at the age of 16.
"I'm 22 years old but my height is 3ft 10 inches and my weight is around 50 pounds. I live life trapped in the body of an eight-year-old," Pittsburgh-born Rae told a TLC TV crew back in 2022.
It was her own reality show, I Am Shauna Rae, which gave viewers a sneak peak into her life and how she manages to take on everyday tasks, all while holding the appearance of an elementary schooler.
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As to why and how she developed pituitary dwarfism, which results in children being shorter than expected - although their body proportions are deemed 'normal', Rae explained in detail.
She said: "When I was six months old my mom noticed a bump in the back of my head so she took me to the doctor, and the doctor said it was a tumor - a very aggressive cancerous tumor.
"I went into immediate surgery and after the surgery I went through chemo for two to three years and I was deemed cancer-free. I was around five and it was kindergarten, they noticed that every kid was significantly taller than me."
Yes, tragically the tumor that had developed in her brain had damaged her growth hormones.
Rae continued: "There's at least a foot difference between me and these other kids that's when they took me back to children's hospital and learned that my pituitary gland was very close to dormant.
"So all of my hormones, my growth hormone, my sweat glands, all of that produces much slower, I got on growth hormones but unfortunately the doctor told me I was done growing. My bones refused at 16, so I didn't have this realization that i wasn't going to be normal until I was 16.
"That moment was almost like the world shattered."
But while outlets have reported that Rae is 'stuck' in an eight-year-old's body, which comes from her quote in which she says she lives life 'trapped in the body of an eight-year-old', she has since came explained that she isn't 'stuck'.
Taking to TikTok, Rae shared: "I think it's actually very inaccurate. I am not stuck in the body of an eight-year-old, I am a 23-year-old woman whose body is 23 years old.
"It's matured, it's gone through puberty, like I've grown in areas that eight year olds don't until they hit puberty which is later in life, so therefore I'm not in the body of an eight-year-old, I am just a shorter statured woman."