Modern Family's Ariel Winter Opens Up About Why She Left LA & the Trauma of Her Childhood

The 27-year-old -- who was born and raised in LA -- recalled the public scrutiny she went through as she grew up on screen, starring in Modern Family.

"It was just everywhere," she told PEOPLE.

She was a pre-teen when she joined the cast and was thrust into the spotlight at just 11 years old. As she grew up and her body changed, online trolls didn't hesitate to weigh in with negative comments -- which Winter said truly impacted her "self esteem."

"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 slut. I mean, I was 14," she said.

Winter played Alex, the middle child in the Dunphy family, alongside Sarah Hyland as Haley and Nolan Gould as Luke.

She said she quickly found that it didn't matter what she was going through, she "was a target."

"It made it very difficult to look at myself in the mirror and go, 'I love this version of me,'" Winter said.

The highly successful television series wrapped in April 2020, and soon after, Winter packed up her belongings with boyfriend Luke Benward and moved out of LA.

"I didn't leave the industry," Winter insisted. "I just left the city of L.A," she continued. She is currently producing projects on her own and developing a cooking show, all while looking after her six dogs.

"It holds some not-great memories for me, and I'm young and never lived anywhere else, and thought, 'Why not?'" she said of her decision. "If you're no longer on a network show that shoots there, you don't really have to be there, and if I get a network show, I can easily go back." Winter has never shared the location of where she moved.

In the past, Winter has accused her estranged mother Crystal Workman of abuse and of being part of the sexualization of Winter as a teenager. When looking back at her childhood, she said it is all a "really deep, painful, sore, sore part" that she does not feel ready to talk about.

At 14-years-old, the Department of Child and Family Protective Services removed her from her home with her mother and her older sister, Shanelle Gray became her legal guardian.

"I went on to have a great rest of my teenage years thanks to being under her custody," Winter told the publication.

In order to help her move forward, she has undertaken therapy and has found a new passion by working with the organization SOSA (Safe From Online Sex Abuse). "It just impacted me so deeply because I’d been that kid who’d been preyed upon online so many times," Winter explained of her involvement.