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She’s TV’s biggest small star.
Pint-sized Shauna Rae is fast becoming a household name thanks to her hit reality series airing on TLC.
“I Am Shauna Rae” revolves around the exploits of the Long Island local who insists she’s just like any other young millennial — save for the fact she looks like an 8-year-old.
Rae weighs just 50 pounds and stands at 3-foot-10 due to treatment she received for childhood brain cancer.
But what the blond lacks in height, she makes up for in personality — happy to show off for the cameras as she tackles everyday activities such as driving and dating.
Rae told The Post that she’s constantly underestimated and excluded because of her appearance, but that hasn’t stopped her from going after what she wants.
“If you look at me, you see an 8-year-old,” she 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.”
Why does Shauna Rae look so young?
Rae has a rare medical condition stemming from chemotherapy treatment for brain cancer at the age of 6 months.
The treatment impacted her pituitary gland, leading to a dramatic stunt in her growth and causing pituitary dwarfism. She’s been in full remission from cancer for years.
She started taking growth hormones at 8; however, on/off treatment was stopped permanently when she reached puberty.
“I reached the finish line, you could say,” Rae told The Post.
Who is Shauna Rae’s boyfriend?
Rae recently made headlines after her burgeoning romance with travel blogger Dan Swygart, 26, raised eyebrows among viewers.
Rae and Swygart were seen on dates during the second season of the TLC series, prompting some critics to call the male suitor “creepy” for lusting after a lady who looks like a young girl.
However, Rae told The Post that she has the ability to suss out creeps after years of being a singleton — meaning she gave Swygart a green light.
“I’ve just developed the ability to spot someone who may not have the best intentions because they give 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 down to her as if she were a third-grader.
“I view myself as intelligent, and I think when people first see me, they don’t see me as intelligent,” the star asserted. “They still don’t understand that I have that intelligence there.”
“I tend to find guys that are just one-dimensional and don’t actually have any depth to the conversation. [A deeper connection] is what I’m looking for. I feel like: ‘If I can teach you something, you can teach me something’ — that’s what I look for in relationships.”
In 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 important to remember that Shauna is an incredible 23-year-old woman who has a disability,” he said. “So as you are building a connection with her, it’s important to acknowledge her disability and look past that and build it with who she is as an individual.”
He continued: “As soon as you say that she can’t have a real-world connection with someone else, you dehumanize her. She is a human being. She deserves to have relationships and connections with whoever she wants.”
Over the weekend, he additionally scolded haters for their “absolutely disgusting” remarks about the pair’s friendship.
“How dare you take away her right, her human right, to have a connection, a friendship, a relationship with someone else?” he railed on Instagram. “Who are you to say she can’t have that? I am absolutely disgusted by some people’s attitude toward her and my friendship with her. I cannot believe some people who deny her the right to have a friendship or a connection with someone else.
“How dare you? How dare you?” he implored.
Amid all the public reaction, Swygart has returned to the UK, while Rae remains on Long Island and the state of their romance remains up in the air.
What does Shauna Rae do for a job?
Rae hopes to conquer the world of showbiz.
The former coffee shop worker — 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 can help springboard her to stardom.
But the New Yorker — who lives at home with her mom and stepdad — is also aiming to complete some other less-lofty goals in the near future, such as 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 use pedal extensions.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the star is fighting simply to be seen and taken seriously.
Her short stature means many question her actual age and identity, making it feel almost impossible to buy alcohol and even schedule her own appointments with doctors.
“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,” she told The Post. “I was trying to leave, but some employee wouldn’t allow me to because they thought I was a child leaving without a parent.”
Rae offered to show them her ID, and she also pointed out that she has tattoos and piercings. But the employee got their supervisor.
“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,” she said. “It got to the point where I had to leave when 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 are,” she said. “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.”
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