A franchise first! Alina made history on season 5 of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days as the cast’s first little person. The Russian beauty has a very rare form of dwarfism called diastrophic dysplasia.

Diastrophic dysplasia is a hereditary genetic disorder, according to John Hopkins Medicine. It affects cartilage, as well as the development of body parts such as the hands, face, ears, feet, hips, legs and spine.

“It’s rare and it affects everybody different,” Alina, 27, said in her confessional on the December 12 episode. “For a child to be born with this type of dwarfism, both parents have to be carriers for the gene. It can affect your joints and of course your stature. My hands and my feel look pretty different, too but I don’t think disability is a problem. In many areas of my life, I try to do everything really.”

Alina also revealed that she recently got into burlesque modeling and she also she sings in a band called BFF. She lives with her friend and roommate, Elijah, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, who helps her with day to day tasks like reaching things in their home.

“I’m pretty comfortable with my body. I’ve already accepted the fact that I don’t look like everyone else and I’m just trying to rock what I have but there are things that are hard to do,” she explained. “With my hands, sometimes it’s a bit hard to do some things because my fingers don’t really bend and I can’t walk a lot, so I use a wheelchair for longer distances.”

The model added, “When it comes to dating and me being a little person, there also have been some challenges but I’ve never dated a little person. I don’t know why, but I really like tall guys. But in Russia, a lot of people, they don’t take me seriously, they don’t treat me as an equal person but Caleb did and I’m glad he did.”

Alina joined the 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days season 5 with her longtime love interest, Caleb. The couple met when they were teenagers on social media as he was hoping to learn Russian and she was hoping to learn English, and their friendship blossomed into something more over the years.

“He is handsome and we laugh at the same weird stuff. He like, tries to cheer me up if I’m not having a good day. Sometimes I send him my pictures and he’s like, ‘You’re a queen,’ and I’m like, ‘Yas,'” Alina gushed with a laugh. “It doesn’t bother him that I’m a little person and I really love that about him.”

She continued, “I really cannot wait to see how he really is in real life and to touch him and get to know each other for real. I just want someone to be serious about me and be a good partner, supporting each other no matter what and I think Caleb could really be the one.”

It looks like fans will have to tune in to see if Caleb and Alina are a match!

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