Ariel Winter, 19, used to find the idea of shopping for a bathing suit totally terrifying, according to her May 31 interview with Refinery29. But thanks to her 2015 breast reduction surgery, and a lot of time spent working on her self esteem and body image, she feels so much more comfortable browsing the racks for a bikini. Click here to see pics of Ariel and her beau Levi Meaden.
“Before then, I didn’t feel like myself, and everyone was so focused on my cleavage, so when I got the breast reduction it helped me feel so much better about my body,” Ariel told the outlet of how she felt after having her then-size-32F chest significantly reduced to alleviate physical pain and body-image issues. “I used to have full-scale meltdowns in bathing suit shops because there was nothing I could find to wear. I always felt like crap about myself. It’s gotten a little better, but it’s still definitely hard. Like, my best friend, she’s super tall and skinny and she’ll wear the same bathing suit as me, but people will automatically look at me and call me out as a slut or write headlines about ‘Ariel Winter’s cleavage.’ Meanwhile they look at her like, ‘Oh she looks so cute!’ But I’ve learned to not care about that as much. I’m comfortable in a bathing suit, scars and all.”
The Modern Family star also went into detail about how long it took her to overcome the hurtful comments she would receive online from body-shamers. “I went through a lot of hate online, so I tried to change myself for a really long time. But people just kept hating on me no matter what I did,” Ariel said. “I decided that instead of pleasing these other people, I’ll just spend that time pleasing myself. Those people are going to be rude to me regardless of what I do, so I should just try and be happy with what I am.” Amen! We definitely want to go bathing suit shopping with you, Ariel!
HollywoodLifers, what do you think of Ariel’s bold statements about her bathing suit body? Give us all your thoughts below!