‘I’m always looking for someone who can be as open and honest and accepting of my disability and my cancer survivorship,’ the ‘I Am Shauna Rae’ star tells The Messenger
When it comes to her dating life, Shauna Rae — whose growth was stunted after battling brain cancer as a young child — is just like anyone else.
Speaking exclusively with The Messenger, the star of TLC’s I Am Shauna Rae — a docuseries that follows the life of the 24-year-old as she navigates life with pituitary dwarfism — opened up about the stigmas that surround her dating life.
“I am actively dating,” said Rae, who has recently teamed up with Aflac to spread awareness of childhood cancer and the importance of supporting the emotional wellbeing of children and families who are undergoing cancer treatment. “I’m always looking for someone who can be as open and honest and accepting of my disability and my cancer survivorship because those are such important core values to me.”
“I found more of a home with people that relate to that than people that don’t understand it, and I always want to educate the people that don’t understand it, whether it’s romantically or friendship-wise,” she added. “But I have found a better common denominator with those who have experienced trauma in some sense.”
Earlier this year, Rae — who stands 3’10” tall — split from love interest Dan Swygart.
“Due to the lack of awareness there was with relationships that are multi-height or disability in-average, there was a lot of backlash,” she explained. “You have to have a backbone and thankfully because of my cancer, I had a backbone towards it. But at the end of the day, overall awareness would have helped that, spreading the awareness would have helped people that were being judgmental, be less judgmental.”
Rae continued, “That’s why programs like Aflac are not only important to the cancer and the social and the mental and emotional impact you go through during cancer, but helps with survivorship and helps break this stigma that will eventually help break the dating stigmas that come with survivorship.”
Despite the difficulties, the reality TV star said she’s learning the importance of carrying on with “positivity.”
“The emotional impact that my cancer diagnosis and living with pituitary dwarfism and as a cancer survivor has had on me is a great one,” she shared. “It’s one of the ones I am constantly dealing with and adapting to. I do have days where I get really sad and I look in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Could have been different. But I can’t really focus on that. If I try to focus on that, I will live on negativity and as a cancer survivor, it’s really important to live in the positivity.”
“If you focus so much on the past and what’s happened, you don’t realize you’re a fighter, you’re a survivor, you’re resilient, you’re strong,” Rae concluded. “It makes who you are when you look in the mirror — a perfect person no matter what, no matter what physical, emotional, social or mental scars you have from your cancer. You are worth it and you are amazing.”
Both seasons of I Am Shauna Rae are currently available to stream on Max.