PLEASE SEE THE REAL ME

She may look like a child but Shauna Rae is 2 and just wants to live and love like any other young woman

- SIPHOKAZI ZAMA

THERE are many things she’s just had to learn to accept: if she goes into a bar she’ll invariably be asked for her ID and if she goes shopping for new clothes she’ll be directed to the kids’ department because everything in the adult section will be far too big for her.

As viewers of her reality TV show I Am Shauna Rae know, life is much more complicated for 23-year-old American Shauna Rae Lesnick than it is for her friends.

Standing just 1,21m tall, she’s roughly the same height as an eight-year-old and this leads to all kinds of humiliating problems and misunderstandings.

But the stares and judgemental comments Shauna from Long Island, New York, has had to put up with most of her life are nothing compared to the outcry she faced recently after she went public with the new guy she’s been dating.

On paper, Shauna and Dan Swygart (26) seem like the perfect match.

They’re similar ages, share the same quirky sense of humour and enjoy outdoor activities.

But when the tall, strapping Welsh blogger recently made an appearance on her reality TV show (on TLC, DStv channel 135) all that viewers could talk about was the radical difference in their heights.

Some even went so far as to label Dan “a creep” for dating someone who looks like a child.

The criticism was so harsh it prompted the couple to decide to put the brakes on their budding relationship.

In a candid Instagram video, Dan expressed his disappointment at how everything has panned out.

“Me and Shauna are just good friends, we’re getting to know each other. But I think it’s absolutely disgusting, the attitude of some people,” he said.