A woman who describes herself as being ‘stuck in the body of an eight-year-old’ has explained why she has chosen not to reveal her boyfriend’s identity.
Although Shauna Rae Lesick appears to be a young child, she is actually 26 years old.
Shauna Rae gained prominence through her own TLC reality TV show, “I Am Shauna Rae,” which explores her distinctive life experiences.
In the 2022 show trailer, Shauna Rae stated: “I am a 22-year-old woman stuck in the body of an 8-year-old.”
At the age of 16, Shauna Rae learned that her growth had ceased, which she described as a challenging period.
In a conversation with PEOPLE, she remarked: “It probably was the lowest time of my life, because I always imagined that I would be tall. And getting that news, it just kind of was like a hammer crashing into glass.”
Shauna Rae further explained: “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.
“I started doing online school, and I just really focused on me and what I wanted to do, and who I was as a person, and bettering myself.”
Shauna Rae’s growth was affected due to a childhood diagnosis of brain cancer.
Even though she successfully overcame the illness, the disease and its treatment impacted her pituitary gland, which regulates growth.
The medical term for Shauna Rae’s condition is pituitary dwarfism.
Since her show’s debut three years ago, Shauna Rae has maintained a presence in the public eye, recently appearing on The Unplanned Podcast hosted by Abby and Matt Howard.
During the podcast, Shauna Rae was questioned about her current relationship and the decision to keep her boyfriend’s identity private.
“Neither one of us care if his face is out there,” she asserted.
“I more worry because he has a nice job. I don’t want anything bad going to the job. The job knows who I am, they know what I do for my living, they love me.”
She further clarified: “But with everything that social media is and everything I know my boyfriend isn’t, I just don’t want him to be labelled something and him not be my partner forever.
“At this point, unless I’m marrying him, or spending my rest of my life with him, his face isn’t going to be shown.”