Talking about your sex life when you're "a 22-year-old woman stuck in the body of an 8-year-old" isn't easy.
Shauna Rae wants that to change, though. "I think that people just need to understand I'm a normal human being," she said on the Feb. 7 episode of The Sarah Fraser Show when the subject arose.
Shauna, now the star of TLC's docuseries I Am Shauna Rae, was diagnosed with brain cancer at 6 months old before receiving a life-saving chemotherapy treatment that rendered her pituitary gland almost dormant. Shauna stopped growing, and today, she's only 3 feet and 10 inches tall, the average height of an 8-year-old.
Thus, the difficulty surrounding her ability to go to a bar, get a tattoo and, as she discussed on the recent podcast episode, talk about sex. Having it, and doing "all those normal things other humans do in those activities" isn't even a problem, Shauna said. It's just a "taboo" topic of conversation.
"I know sex is a huge topic when it comes to disability and just dwarfism in general, so it is something that is touchy," Shauna said on the podcast. "But it's something that needs to be talked about. I don't think sex should be so taboo as it is in our society."
Instead, Shauna believes that sex should be viewed in a "positive" light because it's "a way of connecting with other people."
Plus, "at least for me," she continued, "it was confirmation that I can kind of do whatever I want, because growing up I was told that it might not be a possibility. And when I found the boyfriend that I had and we dated for a couple years and it finally happened, it made me feel like a normal woman."
Shauna acknowledged that there may be people who "fetishize" her, but she can usually suss them out.
At the end of the day, sex is "a personal choice," Shauna said.
"And it was my personal choice to do it," she added. "And I'm happy that I work."
I Am Shauna Rae airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on TLC.