A 22-year-old woman who claims to be trapped in the body of an 8-year-old has spoken out about how she manages to be treated like an adult.
Due to a kind of medical dwarfism, Long Islander Shauna Rae is only 3 feet 10 inches tall and weighs roughly 50 pounds.
Here, you may discover one unexpected method Shauna tries to “look older”
For Shauna, who was diagnosed with an aggressive malignant tumor at the age of barely six months, it was a horrific beginning to live.
The doctors successfully removed Shauna’s tumor, and she was later proclaimed cancer-free. Yet, the young woman’s symptoms from the treatment lasted much longer.
At kindergarten, Shauna’s dwarfism was evident because so many of the other kids were at least a foot taller than she was.
Nevertheless, Shauna’s physicians did not make this diagnosis until she was 16 years old.
Her bones had already cemented together, and because her pituitary gland was almost completely inactive, any more development seemed improbable.
Shauna has maintained her small size despite being administered growth hormones, and she lives a totally different lifestyle than the average 22-year-old woman.
She claims in the I Am Shaun Rae documentary on TLC Australia: “I didn’t have this realization that I wouldn’t be normal until I was 16. In that moment, the world shattered.
“I want to live my life like my friends and sisters do, but I need my mother, father, and the rest of the world to realize that I’m an adult.”
We observe Shauna’s issues firsthand while sitting at the bar in the documentary. Understandably, she suffers from other people’s impressions of her as a young child.
Shauna shows her ID to indicate her true age after drawing several awkward looks and being informed that kids are prohibited at the establishment.
Shauna also suffers from how people perceive her compared to Tara, her 24-year-old sister.
She says: “It is difficult seeing my other friends and family being more independent, but I don’t envy or have any jealousy towards Tara and what choices she has made in her life, whether that’s going to college or moving out.
“But I think it’s entirely unfair that my parents treat us differently as we’re only two years apart.”
The 22-year-old is also seen leaving with her two buddies for a nearby brewery, hoping that behaving like an adult will boost her self-confidence.
She even admitted she picked up vaping as a ploy to ‘look older.’
She says: “I’ve always been attracted to that edgy lifestyle with the tattoos, the piercings, vaping, or doing anything adult-esque.
“It wasn’t to show anyone else that I’m an adult, but to prove to myself that I’m an adult.”
Although stressing that she doesn’t need a man to become more independent, she has also explored online dating and is searching for methods to meet new people.
