Ariel Winter isn’t with him. The Modern Family actress sounded off against Donald Trump during an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, October 20. In Winter’s opinion, Trump has set society back ages with his lewd comments about women and their looks.
“I think it’s really disappointing that we’ve made so many strides towards promoting body positivity for women — and for men — and for empowering women, and he really kind of just tears it all down,” the 18-year-old actress told ET while talking about Trump’s resurfaced 2005 Access Hollywood tape. “I think it’s really disappointing that he’s made it this far — that he is a presidential candidate, and this is possibly the person who will be representing the United States.”
The teen star, who was named the new Dove Self-Esteem Project #SpeakBeautiful squad leader, speaks about body shaming from experience, having been criticized by bullies for her weight.
“For many years, I faced tons of online criticism from cyberbullying,” Winter added. “I had a ton of self-esteem issues, so I had a really long body positivity journey of learning to be confident in myself.”
Winter talked candidly about how she got “boobs and a butt and a curvy body” when she turned 12, and that she was shamed for them once she did.
“I was called fat and ugly and a slut, and a lot of things for just being me, and it was really difficult,” she admitted. “For many years, I did my best to try and [crash] diet to lose weight, or change the way I dressed, and change the things I talked about to see if it would help and to see if people would reply more positively to me if I did that.”
These days, Winter is confident in her own skin. “I finally said to myself, ‘You know, I’m wasting so much time trying to please other people when I really should be focusing on the most important relationship I have, which is the one I have with myself,'” she concluded. “And I took that time to really focus on me, and to understand that people’s comments aren’t what matter.”
