Featured Image Credit: TLC
Topics: Sex and Relationships
Emma Guinness
A woman with a rare genetic condition that's left her looking like a child has opened up about the 'creeps' who want to date her.
Shauna Rae, 28, looks like she's around eight years old after she developed pituitary dwarfism following a battle with brain cancer as a child.
While she has long since recovered from her illness, it stopped her pituitary gland from working and prevented her from growing taller than 3-feet-10.
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Her small stature has left her with a number of problems as she settles into adulthood, especially when it comes to finding love.
"People don't understand that I'm an adult," she said at the start of her new TLC reality show.
“If you look at me, you see an eight-year-old," she explained to the New York Post.
"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."
Shauna therefore needs her potential suitors to take their time when it comes to getting to know her, so that they can see past her physical difference.
But she has admitted that she is targeted by 'creeps' who 'may not have the best intentions', however, she is at the stage where she can suss them out.
"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 towards my physicality… They're learning about me like I'm a specimen in a lab."
As part of her new reality show, Shauna went on a date with Thomas, 20, a firefighter who also developed pituitary dwarfism after a cancer battle.
On their date, the pair opened up about the unique challenges their condition creates when dating, with Shauna revealing that she's even had children 'hit on me'.
Thomas said that this has never happened to him.
The pair ultimately found their date an inspiring experience, as it allowed them to see that they were both working towards similar goals despite their condition - specifically, moving out into their own homes.
"Meeting the young man with pituitary dwarfism was an amazing experience. We had a lot in common because of our medical histories. And then our actual social lives are much different," she said.
"I think that is very inspiring for each of us and anyone else when they watch it because we came kind of from a similar background, but not at the same time," Shauna added. "And we live two different lives due to two different ways of people reacting to our disability."
I Am Shauna Rae is available to watch on TLC.