Ariel Winter Opens Up About ‘Trauma’ From Dealing with ‘Male Predators’ in Hollywood | Ariel Winter | Just Jared: Celebrity News and Gossip

Ariel Winter is opening up about the dark side of being a child star.

The 27-year-old Modern Family actress spoke to DailyMail.com about the trauma she experienced as a child actress.

According to Ariel, who rose to fame playing the role of Alex Dunphy on Modern Family, her own experiences with predators left her with lasting trauma.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I am familiar with male predators because I worked in Hollywood at a young age,” Ariel said in the interview, noting that she started acting when she was 4 years old. “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.”

Ariel went on to share that she’s had to seek help for the experiences she had in the spotlight. “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 is working with YouTube true crime series SOSA Undercover to bring child predators to justice through sting operations.

The actress said that her own trauma inspired her to help SOSA Undercover’s work in order to save other people from having experiences like she had. She said in the interview, “I was just like, God, I would love to be able to help be a part of that. I don’t want to say there’s a solution, but I would love to help take some of these people off the streets.”

Watch the trailer for Ariel‘s terrifying new movie now!