A 25-year-old woman has shared her experience of developing a condition that significantly affected her growth, despite not being born with it.
Throughout her life, Shauna Rae has been noticeably smaller than those around her, having been diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism at 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.
Her reality show, I Am Shauna Rae, offered audiences a glimpse into her daily life, demonstrating how she navigates tasks while appearing much younger than her actual age.
Rae delved into the reasons and circumstances surrounding her development of pituitary dwarfism, a condition that results in shorter stature while maintaining ‘normal’ body proportions.
She recalled: “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.”
Unfortunately, the tumor in her brain had adversely affected her growth hormones.
Rae explained further: “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.”
While some media outlets have described Rae as being ‘stuck’ in an eight-year-old’s body, based on her statement about feeling ‘trapped’, she has clarified her stance on this notion.
On TikTok, Rae stated: “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.”