Ariel Winter has made headlines in recent years for her social media presence as she she’s transitioned from a teen actress into adulthood. She’s had to navigate the pitfalls of fame all while starring in ABC’s hit comedy Modern Family and now she’s opened up about growing up in the spotlight and how “difficult” that really is.
In a recent interview Ariel Winter talked about what it was like to be a young person in the spotlight and from her comments, she didn’t really appreciate a lot of the side effects of fame while working on Modern Family.
Growing up in front of everybody is difficult. It's stressful. Millions of people think they can comment on your life.
It’s not just Ariel Winter who really had to go through puberty on the small screen, however. Many of her young co-stars suffered the same fate, particularly Nolan Gould, who plays Luke Dunphy, and Rico Rodriguez, who plays Manny Delgado. Speaking at TCA (via USA Today), Ariel Winter spoke out more about the changes she and her co-stars went through, specifically mentioning braces as a bad time for character.
Rico, Nolan and I changed a lot over 11 years. … The year I had braces was an awful year for me. I went through puberty over the summer. I had other things. It was an awful year for me.
However, it should be noted that Winter's weight ups and downs have often been commented on during her time on the show as well. Along with Ariel Winter gaining weight, having to wear braces and generally developing during the decade+ the show has been on the air, her other formerly pint-sized co-stars also went through changes with size, weight and the dudes even dealt with their voices cracking on screen.
They weren’t the only ones. Sarah Hyland also had to deal with growing up in the spotlight and having to deal with people being vocal about her body. It was only a couple of years ago when she was forced to address health issues publicly after people accused her of being anorexic. She was already in her mid-twenties when this happened.
Ultimately, Ariel Winter and her co-stars came out the other side of growing up in the spotlight. These days, her character Alex Dunphy has graduated college and gone on to nab her first grownup job on the series. It just goes to show that 11 years is a really long time in the scheme of things for a show to be on the air.
That said, Season 11 of Modern Family will be the longtime sitcom’s last. ABC announced the news last year during the TCA winter tour. At the time, it was good news (ish) as the show was being given a final season to wrap up remaining storylines. However, now that we are partway though that final season, the end really is nigh.
Some of the actors involved with the show have already signed on for their next projects, but perhaps for actors like Ariel Winter, it will give her a chance to take a step back from what she feels have been somewhat negative internet interactions thus far.
