Reality star Shauna Rae is dishing all the details her fans want to know about her personal life.
The star of TLC’s “I Am Shauna Rae” has been answering fan questions on social media and sharing a look into her life before, during, and after reality TV cameras were rolling.
Shauna Rae Talks About Dealing With Negative Criticism
Shauna Rae – Instagram
Shauna, 24, was diagnosed with brain cancer not long after birth and underwent chemotherapy which affected her growth hormones. At the age of 16, she was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism. Through her hit reality show, “I Am Shauna Rae,” she was able to spread awareness and educate people on childhood cancer and the effect it had on her life.
Shauna often takes time to respond to her fans’ questions about her life and share the answers in videos on Instagram and TikTok. When one fan asked about how she handles negative criticism, Shauna revealed what it was like for her in school in a video captioned, “Negative criticism now is nothing, but growing up it almost ruined me. It’s why I took a step back to find myself. It’s why social media breaks are important to me,” on Instagram.
“As a kid, I didn’t do well with it [negative criticism]. I did okay with it when it came to other people, but there were a lot of people in my main life that mocked, ridiculed, and just made fun of me, so I did not do well with negative criticism as a kid,” she said.
“I viewed it as someone who cared about me making fun of me, in a sense. It was really hard for me to come to terms with my disability and come to terms that a lot of people are going to make fun of me my entire life.”
She continued to explain that during junior high school when she didn’t know anyone, she was “ridiculed, being kind of mocked, being legit picked up and dragged almost into the boys’ bathroom.”
“By lunch, someone was fake asking me out, getting in front of the whole cafeteria, fake asking me out, thinking it’s funny, and it’s humorous, and he even got his buddy to go in on it,” she continued.
“And that to me set up a lot of negative thoughts towards myself and my disability in general, so I had a really hard time dealing with the criticism.”
Shauna Rae Explained Her “Turning Point” From Negativity To Positivity
Shauna Rae – Instagram
A few months ago, Shauna shared information on TikTok about her past anger and negativity and what her turning point was that led her to a more positive life.
“So because of what I went through in high school, elementary school, middle school, I was extremely upset going to school and interacting with my peers and having to go through the bullying and the harassment and in some sense neglect from teachers and older people because they didn’t notice or do anything about it,” she said.
“My feelings kind of were being rejected constantly. Anything I thought, anything I said, it was rebuttal with no you’re fine, you’re okay, I don’t know what you’re saying kind of situation.”
@shaunarae99 My childhood was not “normal” socially, emotionally, mentally, or physically. No one asked so I stopped speaking about it. Accept others don’t reject. acknowledge feelings and reflect. #shaunaraeadventures #shaunaraeadventure #shaunarae #iam #shauna #rae #iamshaunarae #dwarfismawareness #braincancerawareness #pituitarydwarfismawareness #braincancer #brain #cancer #survivor #cancersurvivor #cancertiktok #disabilitytiktok #dwarfismtiktok #disabilityawareness #disability #dwarfism #pituitarytumor ♬ original sound – Shauna Rae
Shauna continued to explain how difficult all the negativity was for her to deal with it and the fact that no one fully understood what she was going through. In eleventh grade, she did half of her courses online and half in person. Her high school was “gigantic” and filled with a “lot of people who didn’t know anything about disabilities.”
For her senior year of high school, Shauna’s guidance counselor wanted her to attend school in person rather than do half online and half in person, but she didn’t feel she could do that.
“So I went fully online and that was my turning point,” she continued to explain. “When I started half online and then when I went to full online, that was the beginning of my turning point.”
At that point, Shauna was spending a lot of time away from judgement from peers and found herself. She realized she was upset because she wasn’t being heard and it helped things to turn around for her.
Why Did Shauna Rae Agree To Do The Reality Show?
Shauna Rae – Instagram
Shauna also recently shared her reasons for doing two seasons of “I Am Shauna Rae” in a TikTok video.
“Before filming ‘I Am Shauna Rae’ season one and two, when we were kind of approached about the idea of doing a TV show, the only thing I wanted from it was to raise awareness about my disability and make it easier in the life that we live in for people with differences to walk around and find necessities that you can’t find as easily as you could if you were a normal statured human being, or if you didn’t go through this life handicapped or if you didn’t go through this life with a difference,” she explained.
“I wanted people to also, that were different, or grew up feeling different, to not feel alone.”
@shaunarae99 It’s always been this reason and never changed. I don’t plan on it changing either. #loveyall #thankyou #iamshaunarae #rae #fyp #shauna #shaunarae #iam #iamshauna #shaunaraeadventures #shaunaraeadventure #tvshow #tlciamshaunarae #tlcshaunarae #message #different #disability #disabilitytiktok #disabilityawareness #disabilitypride #dwarfism #dwarfismawareness #dwarfismtiktok #pituitarydwarfismawareness #pituitarytumor #pituitary #pituitarydwarfism #awareness #awarenessmatters ♬ original sound – Shauna Rae
Shauna wanted to help others who could relate to her journey when she went into season one of the reality show. She said she’s still trying to accomplish that to this day.
“When we got approached to do anything on a large span to relate to people, that’s all I was thinking about. That’s all I wanted to do,” she said. “And that’s all I will want to continue to. Everything I do is in the hopes that it makes it easier for people like me, or people that are different to have an easier life. And that’s all I’m really hoping for.”
As of right now, there is no word on if there will be a season three of “I Am Shauna Rae.” Seasons one and two can be found on TLC.