Key Points
Ariel Winter opened up about receiving a wave of online criticism over her body as a child star.
“It was just everywhere,” the 27-year-old said.
Winter also noted that she left Los Angeles to gain a new perspective.
Modern Family actress Ariel Winter has revealed that she didn’t necessarily find a close kinship with online commenters during her rise to TV stardom on the beloved ABC sitcom.
While playing middle child Alex Dunphy across 11 seasons of the comedy hit, the 27-year-old opened up about her difficult relationship with online bullying as she rose to prominence as a child star on national television.
“It was just everywhere,” she told PEOPLE of experiencing a wave of negative discourse about her body after she first joined Modern Family in 2009.
“It was every headline I read about myself, like, grown people writing articles about me saying how I looked terrible or pregnant or like a fat slut. I mean, I was 14,” Winter recalled. “It totally damaged my self-esteem.”
Winter said the experience made her understand, even as a teen, “what it was like to be hated” by such a large number of people.
“No matter what I was going through, I was a target,” she said. “It made it very difficult to look at myself in the mirror and go, ‘I love this version of me.'”
Following Modern Family‘s conclusion in 2020, Winter said that she and boyfriend, Luke Benward, moved away from Los Angeles to experience life at a different pace outside the city.
“I didn’t leave the industry,” Winter stressed, but said she found a new perspective while existing beyond the realm of Hollywood.
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Ariel Winter on ‘Modern Family’
Though she still pursues acting, Winter has also found a new calling via work with a group called SOSA (Safe From Online Sex Abuse), which works to protect children from online predators.
“Technically, yes, I’m a survivor. I’ve gone through some s—,” Winter told the publication. “But a lot of people have gone through some s—. Calling me a survivor takes away from what I’m here for, which is to help others and shine a spotlight on those that need it.”
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She finished: “More than anything, I want my story to be that she uses her platform for good. My journey to figuring things out and healing is now through helping other people. That’s all I care about.”
Since leaving Modern Family, Winter appeared as a contestant on the reality competition series Stars on Mars (which she quit during production) and also booked voice-acting roles on Disney’s Sofia the First: Royal Magic and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
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