A woman who describes herself as being “stuck in the body of an eight-year-old” has opened up about why she chooses to keep her boyfriend’s identity private.
Shauna Rae Lesick, 26, may appear to be a young child, but she is an adult navigating life with a rare condition that has affected her growth.
She rose to fame through her TLC reality show, I Am Shauna Rae, which explores her unique experiences and challenges.
In the show’s 2022 trailer, Shauna Rae shared: “I am a 22-year-old woman stuck in the body of an 8-year-old.”
At 16, she was told she had stopped growing, news she described as an incredibly difficult moment in her life.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Shauna Rae reflected on the moment she learned she would never grow taller, calling it one of the lowest points in her life.
“It probably was the lowest time of my life because I always imagined that I would be tall,” she shared. “And getting that news, it just kind of felt like a hammer crashing into glass.”
She went on to explain how she coped with the difficult reality: “I kind of isolated myself in a way so I could find myself and be happy with who I am, because at the time, I wasn’t happy with who I was.”
Shauna Rae added, “I started doing online school and really focused on myself, what I wanted to do, who I was as a person, and bettering myself.”
Shauna Rae’s growth was stunted due to complications from childhood brain cancer.
Although she successfully beat the disease, the treatment damaged her pituitary gland, which regulates growth. As a result, she was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism.
Since the debut of I Am Shauna Rae three years ago, she has remained in the public eye. Recently, she appeared on The Unplanned Podcast, hosted by Abby and Matt Howard, where she opened up about her current relationship and why she hasn’t publicly revealed her boyfriend’s identity.
“Neither one of us care if his face is out there,” she explained. “I’m more concerned because he has a good job, and I don’t want anything negative affecting his workplace. They know who I am and what I do for a living, and they love me.”
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Shauna Rae added, “But with the way social media is, and knowing my boyfriend isn’t like that, I don’t want him to be unfairly labeled. Unless I’m marrying him or spending the rest of my life with him, his face isn’t going to be shown.”
