TLC's 'I Am Shauna Rae' focuses on LI woman with rare form of dwarfism

A 22-year-old Coram woman whose rare form of dwarfism makes her appear to be, as she puts it, "trapped in the body of an 8-year-old," shares her attempts at living an adult life in the new TLC series "I Am Shauna Rae," airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

"I'm really used to it," says Shauna Lesick, who eschews her middle name except for professional reasons, speaking by phone from home. She lives with her mother and stepfather, Patty and Mark Schrankel, and her 18-year-old sister Rylee; another sister, 24-year-old Tara, lives in Tallahassee, Florida, but was on Long Island over the summer the show was shot. "I hang out with my friends. I hang out with my dogs. I like to bake. I sew," Lesick says.

All pretty normal. Yet a brain tumor when she was just 6 months old required chemotherapy that largely neutralized her pituitary gland — the "master gland" that controls many other hormone glands. This resulted in growth hormone deficiency, also known as pituitary dwarfism, a condition that affects 1 in 4,000 to 10,000 children, according to Boston Children's Hospital. Despite hormone injections beginning in early childhood, Lesick grew to just 3 feet, 10 inches tall by the time she was 16 and her bones fused.

The series focuses on her trying to be accepted as an adult despite her childlike appearance. The audience sees her drinking, smoking, going on a blind date, and getting inked at Big Joel's Notorious Tattoo, in Centereach. Many people with whom she interacts need convincing they are not being pranked on a hidden-camera show.

"My dwarfism makes my face look young, and because I am proportional versus a little bit disproportional, my form of dwarfism is complicated," she says, "because people don't understand that it is a form of dwarfism, and a disability. And most people do view me as a child because of that."

Unsurprisingly, that makes dating difficult. But Lesick herself is forthright about her sexuality. "I don't want sex or anything of that kind of conversation to be taboo," she says. "I say on the show that I have [been sexually active], and I was open about that. I did have a boyfriend for a couple years, and after trust was gained and knowing each other and knowing there were no issues with my height, it happened naturally. And it made me more of a woman than I thought I was."

Born in Pittsburgh and raised in suburban Ross Township, Pennsylvania, she was about 4 when her divorced mother married Mark Schrankel, who has worked as an art director and is now at a shipping company and has a puppet-theater troupe on the side. At 16, Lesick moved with her family to Philadelphia, where her mother had relocated for work and where Lesick completed high school. When her mom became manager of Nordstrom Grill at Roosevelt Field about five years ago, the family moved to Coram.

Lesick is not in contact with her biological father, Scott Lesick. "He knows that door is always open. He knows I love him," she says. "But because of all the moving and everything that happened, we just lost touch."

Having dabbled in acting — she had a one-line role opposite Julianne Moore in the 2021 Apple TV+ miniseries "Lisey's Story," credited as Shauna Rae — she says she might pursue that or go on to college. For now, she's simply enjoying Long Island, including "the fact that you can smell the beach all the time," she says appreciatively. "I don't think many people notice how different it is and how unique an aspect Long Island has. Like, just instantly when you get on the island, you can smell the water and you can see how beautiful it is."