Shauna Rae Says She's 'Always on Edge' While Shopping Because of Her Size: 'People Forget I'm Short'

Shauna Rae Says She's 'Always on Edge' While Shopping Because of Her Size: 'People Forget I'm Short'

Shauna Rae hits the thrift store in the latest episode of I Am Shauna Rae.

In a preview shared exclusively with PEOPLE, the star says that "thrifting is a great opportunity to find hand-me-down or used clothes that you can reinvent," but she also explores the pitfalls of shopping secondhand as someone who doesn't fit into one section.

The TLC star, who is 3'10" at age 23, visits curated resale store Buffalo Exchange with two friends, one of whom jokes "this is not a Shauna section" while browsing a rack before asking her, "Where is your section?"

RELATED: Shauna Rae Reveals She's Developing an Adaptive Apparel Line and Her Aspirations to Go to FIT

I Am Shauna Rae
I Am Shauna Rae

TLC

This prompts Shauna, who was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism after battling brain cancer as a child, to explain that she doesn't have a section — which is why she wants to develop an adaptive apparel line.

"The main factor of why I'm trying to create a fashion line is because I grew up not fitting into a section," she reveals in the exclusive clip. "I know what it's like to buy clothes and [have] it not fit you in one way but fit you in another."

Shauna also says that she knows what it's like to "look at other people and see the way clothes fit them and be like, 'Why doesn't it fit me like that?'" — and that this places her in an "I'm different" category.

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When the same friend asks if Shauna is going to alter whatever she purchases from the store to fit her, she responds, "That's what I do," noting that "there's no making this kind of stuff fit naturally."

In the clip, Shauna also confirms that her passion for accessible fashion hasn't waned, doubling down on her aspiration to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in order to create her own fashion line that will "fit little people and anyone else on the beauty spectrum."

"I definitely can be a business person," she says to her friend in the thrift store. "But if I can make it with the fashion, why wouldn't I do that?"

Shauna's friends express their support for her dream — and so does her stepfather, Mark. He says that "any other plans that Shauna talks about [are] very vague and general" whereas she has "very specific ideas" about her adaptable fashion line and how to "accomplish it."

"It's way more thought out than anything else that I've ever heard her talk about, which makes me think she should do that," he says.

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Shauna also gets a bit emotional in the episode while reflecting on the thrift store trip: "I think everyone in the situation forgets about my height or my disability."

The aspiring fashion designer reveals that she's "been told plenty of times that people forget I'm short," but says that "I don't ever forget."

"I'm always on edge slightly," she says. "But there is a sense of relaxation that does come over me when I'm with people I'm comfortable with."

I Am Shauna Rae airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.