How TLC Star Shauna Rae Has Changed Her Dating Approach Since Dan Swygart

Finding love as a reality television personality can be difficult enough on its own, but TLC's titular "I Am Shauna Rae" star has a particularly troublesome set of challenges in her dating life when her beaus are met with accusations of criminality and perversion. Rae has a rare form of pituitary dwarfism that resulted in the adult woman remaining about 3 feet, 10 inches tall, and weighing about only 50 pounds, giving her the appearance of a young girl.

Consequently, dating has been tricky for the TLC star. After developing an intimate friendship with Dan Swygart, who was 27 years old while Rae was 23, people quickly condemned Swygart as a pedophile due to Rae's physical appearance. On an episode of "The Sarah Fraser Show," Swygart talked about how tremendous and painful the public's backlash was to his friendship with Rae.

Swygart clarified that he and Rae were emotionally — not physically — intimate, and the pair are still good, platonic friends. As Rae continues to try to find love, she has changed her approach to dating altogether by hiding her partner's identity to save them from online criticism.

Welsh businessman Dan Swygart sparked a friendship with TLC star Shauna Rae after being inspired by her message of strength and perseverance on Instagram. He explained on "The Sarah Fraser Show" that the pair mainly bonded over the phone, but that didn't stop the internet from condemning him as a creep and harassing his family and colleagues. "[There was] this big, huge amount of hate, and I felt like the world was crushing me," he recalled.

However, the relationship didn't just impact Swygart's life. It also deeply affected Rae, who was reduced to her physical appearance as a result of her rare growth hormone deficiency. After Swygart and Rae decided to continue their relationship as platonic friends, Rae decided to keep her future partners shielded from experiencing the same intense scrutiny. In December 2023, Rae posted a photoset on Instagram of her and a new boo but kept their face covered with emojis and used gender-neutral pronouns.

"All you really need to know is they make me happy, and I don't know if I'd be as far in my goals without them," Rae wrote in her caption. "Please know that all I ask from y'all is to support me and refrain from being hateful toward them or my relationship. Any hate towards my partner is hate towards me, and I don't tolerate that."

TLC star Shauna Rae developed a rare brain cancer at six months old, which affected her pituitary gland's function and resulted in her diminutive appearance. Despite the exceptions she's had to make given her condition, such as keeping her romantic partners private for their safety, she hopes that her TLC series "I Am Shauna Rae" and her highly visible online presence will help raise awareness and promote acceptance.

For Rae, she's not merely "a woman trapped in an 8-year-old's body," as her TLC show's tagline might suggest. As she put it on Instagram in March 2023, "I don't personally connect with [that catchphrase]. I think it's actually very inaccurate. I am not stuck in the body of an 8-year-old. I am a 23-year-old woman whose body is 23 years old. It's matured. It's gone through puberty. I am just a shorter-statured woman, and my body is at the average height of an 8-year-old."

In a later September 2023 post, Rae said she doesn't pay attention to the presence or lack of disabilities when looking for a partner. Instead, she looks at who they are on the inside, and she said she hoped others would do the same for her. And while Rae's Instagram is unfortunately littered with creepy and inappropriate comments (c'est la social media), she has also built a large, supportive community. We hope that this community's acceptance spills over for her romantic life, too.