Ariel Winter started out in Hollywood at just 11 years old. Naturally, as she got older, her body matured — and that, unfortunately, is where the internet got ugly. “I was called every name in the book: fat, a slut, trashy, ugly,” she tells Stylish. But she’s not tolerating that talk anymore. She’s fighting back — and educating young girls in the process.
“Right after I started developing, I automatically started getting all this hate. I developed these boobs and a butt, and everything changed,” the Modern Family actress, 18, tells Stylish. “And as I got older, it only seemed to get worse.”
That’s why she decided to partner with Dove on its 12-year-old confidence campaign, the Self Esteem Project, which aims to inspire girls through research, education and understanding of their bodies. “What I think is really amazing about it is that we’re empowering young women to love themselves, to be comfortable with themselves,” she says. “And it’s not just about [liking] what they look like, but loving who they are.”
The Sofia the First star notes that 62 percent of young girls don’t know how to use the internet to get the information that could help them understand that when it comes to bodies, each one is unique, and there’s no such thing as “right” or “wrong.” “We’re teaching them … so we can change the scape, so they don’t have to grow up the way I did,” Winter explains.
Since undergoing breast reduction surgery in 2015, Winter says she feels extremely confident about her body, and her adventurous sense of style proves it. She also credits her sister, Shanelle Workman, whom she moved in with at just 14, and her curvaceous costar Sofia Vergara for encouraging her to embrace her curves. But she has one more source of inspiration, too: the real girls she speaks to online.
“I read a lot of the stories young women will send me about their body positivity and their body journeys, and that really helps me,” she says. “There are a lot of young women who are going through the same thing that I went through, and I think it’s important that we all empower each other. It makes it easier.”
