Three years after I Am Shauna Rae ended, comment sections still argue over the same five things — and Shauna Rae, now 27, has already answered all of them herself. Here they are, in her own words.
1. “She’s Stuck in the Body of an 8-Year-Old”
The show introduced her as a 22-year-old “stuck in the body of an 8-year-old,” but Shauna herself has called that flat-out wrong. In her own TikTok, she said: “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.” The pituitary gland does not control aging, she told UNILAD — the hypothalamus does. As she put it in January 2025: “I am just a human being. I am just short.”
2. “Her Height Means She Can’t Live Like an Adult”
One episode ends this myth. In Season 2’s “Shauna Takes the Wheel,” she passed her driving test in a car fitted with hand controls. She worked with animals in Season 1 and built a TikTok audience of more than a million followers under @shaunarae99. On that podcast, she also knocked down the idea she still lived with her parents: “No, I live with my boyfriend” — “technically alone.”
3. “Doctors Could Have Just Fixed Her Height”
There was no secret treatment withheld. Brain cancer diagnosed at six months old led to surgery and chemotherapy that put the cancer into remission — but left her pituitary gland nearly dormant, so her body stopped growing. She did try: years of growth-hormone injections gained her eight inches by 16. But then her bones permanently fused, and she was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism and told she was done growing — a moment she has called the instant “the world shattered.” At 3-foot-10, that was her final height.
4. “Her Love Life Is Everyone’s Business”
When Shauna dated on camera in Season 2, the backlash was brutal — Dan Swygart, the man she met online, has spoken about being judged “in the most hated group of people on the planet” for dating her. So she changed the rules. According to reports, she has been with her boyfriend since around 2022, and his face stays off the internet on purpose — she worries backlash could reach his job: “I more worry because he has a nice job.” His face, she said, will not be shown “unless I’m marrying him.” No engagement has been confirmed.
5. “Her Fertility Is About Her Size”
This is the one Shauna has corrected most emotionally. In a TikTok video, she told fans they were asking the wrong question: “It’s not, ‘Can I have babies due to my disability or dwarfism?’ It’s, ‘Can I have babies due to my chemo and cancer?'” Her disability, she said, has nothing to do with how she would carry a child — it would probably mean an automatic C-section, simply because she is small. The real obstacle is what chemotherapy did to her fertility: doctors assessed it at 0.6 out of 10, down from 0.8 two months earlier, and egg freezing is a multi-thousand-dollar process her insurance does not cover. As she put it: “I don’t know if I want this, but it’s been taken away from me, and that’s not OK.”
YOU MAY LIKEThe Baby Cancer Battle That Made Her 3-Foot-10: Shauna Rae’s Full Health JourneySo here is the question: Shauna has answered all five herself, on the record, more than once. Which misconception should fans drop first — the “8-year-old” label, the idea she can’t live like an adult, the height “fix,” the demand to see her boyfriend, or the fertility confusion? Pick a side, and say why.
