As far as Ariel Winter is concerned, she doesn’t care what you think! The Modern Family star, who has been criticized for wearing sexy little dresses and posing in a bikini, told Refinery29 in an interview published on Wednesday, May 31, that she’s confident in her skin.
“I went through a lot of hate online, so I tried to change myself for a really long time. But people just kept hating on me no matter what I did,” Winter, who underwent a breast reduction in 2015, told the site. “I decided that instead of pleasing these other people, I’ll just spend that time pleasing myself. Those people are going to be rude to me regardless of what I do, so I should just try and be happy with what I am.”
The 19-year-old actress, who went viral after posing in a teeny bikini on Monday, May 29, added that people should focus less on what they look like.
“People are so stressed out about how they’re going to look in their bathing suits that they forget to go to the beach … which defeats the whole purpose,” Winter shared. “The beach should be a safe space.”
That said, it took Winter a while to come to terms with her curvy physique, just like a majority of other women and men.
“It’s hard to be positive about your body all the time,” she concluded. “I know because I’m honest about my insecurities that people think I’m 100 percent positive about my body all the time, but I’m not. I get really uncomfortable, too. But I just remind myself that this is the body I was given. This is who I am. … I’ve learned to not care about that as much. I’m comfortable in a bathing suit, scars and all.”
