Ariel Winter was just 11 years old when Modern Family premiered in 2009, and over the next 11 years, America watched her grow up in front of their eyes as middle child Alex Dunphy. The actress — who has a couple of projects expected to hit the 2025 movie calendar — has not been shy about how “difficult” and “awful” things got, and she again got real about some traumatic experiences she had as a young actress in Hollywood.
Getting braces, going through puberty and constant scrutiny over her weight are issues that Ariel Winter has discussed regarding her experience growing up on TV. But as someone whose acting career started when she was still preschool age, the problematic behavior toward her began long before her teen years. The actress told the Daily Mail:
I am familiar with male predators because I worked in Hollywood at a young age, I started at age four.
It seems like her experience as a child in the entertainment industry may have led her to her newest project, SOSA Undercover. The true crime docuseries — premiering on the 2025 TV schedule July 17 on YouTube — follows members of the nonprofit SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse) as they work with law enforcement to conduct undercover operations and apprehend sexual predators and traffickers.
Ariel Winter acknowledged that what she went through continued to affect her into adulthood, saying:
I don’t wanna say too much about it, but by the time I was on a laptop and cell phone, I was getting inappropriate messages from older men, and it caused trauma.
It wasn’t just online, either, and while she didn’t want to go into detail, she did say she ended up seeking professional help. The Modern Family star continued:
The experiences I had in person and online as a child have affected me so deeply that I’ve had to go to therapy for it. The movie and TV industry is a dark place.
Ariel Winter has previously opened up about being body-shamed by fans while she was on the Emmy-winning sitcom. She said she was called a “fat slut” when she was 13, and things only got worse when she got on antidepressants and gained 30 pounds. She has reflected on what it felt like to have grown adults writing about her teenage body, saying it really damaged her self-esteem.
In addition to therapy, the Sofia the First star has made other moves in an effort to heal. Winter left Hollywood in 2022 and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, joining a number of celebrities, including Matthew McConaughey, Florence Pugh, James Van Der Beek and more who decided to get out of Los Angeles. She said living in L.A. never allowed her to have a “normal existence,” and she hated being followed by paparazzi and having pictures taken of her.
Hopefully, Ariel Winter has continued to heal from the trauma she suffered as a child, and through her work with SOSA, maybe she’ll help to prevent others from going through similar situations. You can relive her Modern Family days by streaming the sitcom with a Hulu subscription or Peacock subscription, and check out her true crime docuseries SOSA Undercover, on July 17 on YouTube.
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