Ariel Winter's self-esteem was left "totally damaged" after her years of child stardom.
The 27-year-old actress starred as Alex Dunphy on the ABC sitcom 'Modern Family' throughout her teenage years but became a "target" of hate and struggled to accept herself at that time.
She told PEOPLE: "I mean, I was 14.It totally damaged my self-esteem. 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.'"
Ariel has always maintained that her mother Chrisoula Workman was abusive towards her, and while Christina has always publicly denied those allegations, the actress ended up living in the care of her older sister Shanelle Gray but insisted that she still has a "really deep, painful sore" when she looks back on her childhood.
She said: "I went on to have a great rest of my teenage years thanks to being under her custody.
"Honestly, [my biggest source of trauma] is 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."
Since her days on 'Modern Family', Ariel has made small appearances on episodes of 'Firebuds' and 'Law and Order' but insisted that she "didn't leave the industry, just that she had to leave Hollywood because of the difficult "memories" she associated with the area.
She said:"I didn't leave the industry. I just left the city of L.A. It holds some not-great memories for me, and I’m young and never lived anywhere else, and thought, ‘Why not?’ 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."
