Woman who 'looks like an eight-year-old' opens up about 'creeps' that want to date her

A woman who 'looks like an eight-year-old' has explained the dangers she has to be wary of when dating.

Shauna Rae stands at just 3ft and 10 inches tall and weighs around 50lbs, so upon first glance, she looks a lot younger than her actual age.

When she was a child, Shauna was diagnosed with brain cancer and subsequently underwent chemotherapy treatment.

Although it saved her life, it also caused lasting damage to her pituitary gland, which is a small, pea-sized endocrine gland located at the base of your brain.

It's responsible for producing and releasing hormones to aid your metabolism, stress response and reproduction, among other things - including growth.

Due to the impact the chemo had on her pituitary gland, Shauna experienced stunted growth and as a result, she is slightly shorter than the average eight-year-old in the US.

The Long Island native shared an insight into her unique life with viewers in a reality series titled I Am Shauna Rae, seeing her acquire an army of supporters online.

For the most part, she takes her circumstances in her stride, even joking in her Instagram bio: "I listened when my Mama told me to not grow up."

However, the 25-year-old also doesn't shy away from discussing the reality of what life is like for someone who looks like a 'tiny little girl', despite being an adult woman.

She explained that her size makes it 'very easy to be prey', in more ways than one - but her parents were particularly keen to prepare her for how this could impact her dating life.

Speaking on The Unplanned Podcast earlier this year, the social media star explained that her mother Patricia and stepfather Mark taught her that she needed to be extra-wary 'from a very young age'.

Shauna said: "They were like, 'Look - any guy that’s interested in you, any person that’s interested in you, you have to read into them... because there’s a chance that it’s about your size.

"I grew up knowing that, and that was scary. I was scared to date. I was scared to flirt with anyone. I was scared to even be asked out."

She recalled how her instinctive reaction to a boy asking her out in the cafeteria on her first day at school was: "Are you a predator?"

The reality TV star said that her parents warned her that people were 'going to potentially view her differently' when it came to matters of the heart.

Regurgitating the advice she had been given as a youngster, Shauna said: "What you want to look for is building a friendship, building a base.

"At the end of the day, it's not about looks - you're going to get old, you're going to get ugly, you're going to get grouchy, you're going to get crotchety.

"They were like, 'You want to find someone who you can build a base bond with, and you're probably going to end up with someone who was your friend for a really, really longtime and they finally decided that they like you'."

Shauna also opened up about her current relationship and why she keeps it under wraps while chatting with podcast hosts Matt and Abby Howard.

"Neither one of us care if his face is out there," she said. "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.

“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."

Discussing the prospect of him being labelled a 'predator' by trolls online, Shauna said although it was 'upsetting', she would simply ignore the negativity.

"It’s more sad because I’m just looking at the lack of education," she added. "None of them on the internet want to listen. It’s just the fact they haven’t met me in person to understand that I am just a human being.

"I’m just short. I’m just a tiny person."