A 27-year-old man from Dongguan, China struggles to find a job because he looks more like a child than a man in his late 30s. To say that Mao Shen looks a bit younger than his age would be a gross understatement. He claims to be 27 years old, but he looks to be about ten years old.
While some see it as a blessing, a young man from Dongguan says it’s a curse because it prevents him from finding a job. Most employers don’t believe he’s a grown man, and those who don’t want to put themselves in danger of authorities coming to accuse them of using child labor.
Mao Shen caused a stir in China last week after a video of him filmed on the streets of Dongguan went viral on Douyin (TikTok). In the video, a young man revealed his age and complained that he couldn’t find work to support his father, who is recovering from a stroke. Shen was looking for work in local factories with a friend. They found a job pretty quickly, but they looked at it and just didn’t take it.
Shen’s story has touched the hearts of millions across China. People blame employers for not giving him a chance because of his unusually youthful appearance. Fortunately, after the guy became famous on the Internet, many entrepreneurs offered him work.
Another video posted on Douyin a few days ago shows Mao accepting one of the job offers he received and hoping to earn enough to help his father recover. Once they overcome this problem, he hopes to find a girlfriend and start a family. Although Mao Shen’s story was picked up by several news outlets in China, none of them mentioned medical reasons for the 27-year-old’s youthful appearance. It probably has something to do with his pituitary gland, which controls physical development. Similar cases, when adults “stuck” in the body of children, are known to medicine, and almost always the pituitary gland is the cause.
