Haters gonna hate! Ariel Winter is no stranger to social media bullying, but the Modern Family star, 21, exclusively tells Us Weekly why she regrets clapping back at some of her trolls.
“I try to not respond. I wanted to respond positively to people for a long time because I do feel that if you are sitting and sending somebody that message, there must be something you’re not getting in your life,” she explains to Us, “if you’re gonna sit on your computer and send somebody that.”
She continues, “I have had those moments where I’ve responded and I have regretted to responding to some of them, not all, but some I have regretted. I’ve been like, ‘This is stupid. It’s unnecessary.’ I do know … I think as everybody knows, when somebody is posting that comment they want an argument, you know, they want you to respond.”
The actress has made a stunning transformation from raven-haired tween to redheaded adult during her decade as Alex Dunphy, a middle child far wiser than her years. With the series’ 11th season — its last — debuting in September, Winter, the newly minted spokeswoman for Ulta Beauty, is ready to put the negativity behind her.
“I actually had a fan comment on one of my posts and said, ‘You respond more to negative comments than you do to positive,’” she reveals. “I didn’t even realize I was doing that. I think about the positive comments way more and it affects me way more … As a society we do comment more on the negative and that comment really hit me and so now I’m really trying to follow that of like, doing what I actually feel, which is to be thankful for the support and actually show that and kind of try and bury the negative.”
For more on Winter, pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now!
With reporting by Carly Sloane
