Ariel Winter, now 27 and a native of Los Angeles, recently shared insights into her childhood. The actress began her career in commercials at the young age of 14.
Gaining prominence for her role as the middle child Alex Dunphy in the popular series Modern Family, alongside Sophia Vergara, Winter discussed the downsides of fame.
In this week’s feature for PEOPLE magazine, she spoke about being surrounded by negativity, confessing, “It was just everywhere.”
“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 s**t. I mean, I was 14,” Winter recalled.
She admitted that the animosity had “totally damaged my self-esteem,” adding, “I understood what it was like to be hated.”
“No matter what I was going through, I was a target. It made it very difficult to look at myself in the mirror and go, ‘I love this version of me,'” Winter further revealed to the publication.
However, her life took a turn for the better when she was placed under the guardianship of her older sister, Shanelle Gray.
“I went on to have a great rest of my teenage years thanks to being under her custody,” she said of her older sister, who became her legal guardian.
Nevertheless, Ariel Winter chose not to delve into further specifics about her childhood, stating, “Honestly, it’s just my entire childhood. It’s a really deep, painful, sore, sore part for me that’s so much deeper and bigger than I’ve ever felt ready to talk about.”
