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Ariel Winter Gets Political, Encourages Instagram Followers To Vote

Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions when it comes to politics. Celebrities fit into a bit of a unique category because they accumulate a following and fan base they can share their political views with. In the last 24 hours, Modern Family star Ariel Winter decided to step up on social media and get political.

“Voting is your right,” the 20-year-old actress exclaimed to her 3.9 million followers on Instagram. While Winter decided not to openly share what her political views were, she did want her fans and followers to know she exercised her right to vote. More importantly, she wanted to make it clear that she took the time to make an “informed” decision.

“I took time last week to go over all of my voting materials because I wanted to be sure I was making informed decisions. Please, register to vote today (if you haven’t already), educate yourselves on the propositions and candidates, and get out to the polls on November 6th,” the actress said in her Instagram post as she encouraged her fans to follow in her footsteps.

The first photo featured Ariel holding up an “I Voted” sticker. The second photo featured the young actress standing with Sharon Sacks, Winter’s studio teacher on the site of Modern Family. In addition to using the post to encourage her followers to vote, Winter also used the post as an opportunity to pay tribute to Sharon and thank her for being an inspiration.

“The woman in the second photo is someone incredibly important to me. She was my studio teacher on Modern Family since the show began, but more importantly, she’s family. Sharon made sure to instill in me the importance of fighting for what I believe in and never being silenced— no matter the cost. We ALL have a voice and a right to be heard,” Ariel added as she explained who the woman in the second photo was.

In just 24 hours, Ariel’s political Instagram post had accumulated over 105,000 likes and over 500 comments. Unfortunately, her message did not seem to be well-received by the individuals leaving comments.

Many criticized her for copying Taylor Swift who recently attracted a lot of attention for getting political on Instagram as well. Those same individuals, however, pointed out the deadline to register to vote had already passed in a lot of states. Continue reading “Ariel Winter Gets Political, Encourages Instagram Followers To Vote”

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Ariel Winter Knows There’s No One Way To “Look” Like A Feminist, No Matter What People Think

Following the 2017 Women’s March and massive upset over the presidential election, feminism has seemingly been more at the core of major cultural dialogue and issues than ever before. And naturally, that’s led to many people debating what it really means to be a feminist: what does one have to be like? Look like? Say or do? Speaking on the red carpet at the Girl’s Up #GirlHero Awards recently, actor Ariel Winter explained why there’s no one definition of what feminism looks like, no matter what some people think.

“I sometimes get upset when people say they’re feminists but they do nothing for it, they put feminists in a box,” Winter tells Bustle on the red carpet. “I think feminism is anything you want to be.”

And the Modern Family star walks the walk, constantly proving that appearance and political beliefs aren’t mutually exclusive. The 20-year-old proudly posts photos showing off her body on Instagram, even though such posts are often the center of controversy. Winter clearly doesn’t care what people think — she knows what her beliefs are, and that’s what matters. “I hate the fact that… you have to look a certain way to be a feminist, you have to act this way, you can’t wear a short dress and be smart, you can’t look a certain way to be a champion for your sex,” she says.

While women have made massive strides since first-wave feminism took hold decades ago, Winter notes how there are still many people with an unfortunate, dated mindset about the female population. “There are still people who think that we have a specific role: that we can’t do the jobs that men do or the jobs that are important, that we’re meant to cook and clean and stay home with kids,” she explains. “And here’s the thing: there’s nothing wrong with that, if somebody wants to do that,” she says.

Winter further raises an excellent point about another misconception of feminism. “The other thing that bothers me is sometimes when people say feminist, they put it in a way that makes us seem like we want to have power over everybody,” she says passionately. “We want equality. Across the board. And that’s what feminism is supposed to be.”

Reminding oneself of that core belief and what feminism is all about is crucial, according to Winter. “We want to be equal to everybody, to all groups in the world. We don’t need to be above anybody,” she says. “Because then we’re doing what the people [are doing that] we don’t want to do. We don’t want that from them, so why would we do that?”

And while policies and societal standards that are influenced by feminism certainly aren’t simple, practicing feminism in daily life can be. For Winter, it comes down to supporting fellow women and truly taking action.

“You can make change, you can grow with other people, you can get other people to make change,” she explains. “People give up because they’re like, ‘I’m one person, doesn’t matter’… But one person can’t alone.”

By voicing opinions such as these, Winter is helping with the exact change and awareness she’s urging others to help create.

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Ariel Winter Reveals ‘Modern Family’ Death Isn’t Who You’d Think

Ariel Winter is opening up about how the Pritchett-Dunphy family will deal with a major tragedy on a highly anticipated episode of Modern Family.

Last month, co-creator Christopher Lloyd told Entertainment Weekly that a “significant character in the series” will die in season 10, affecting the characters across multiple episodes. ET spoke with the 20-year-old actress at the first annual #GirlHero Awards luncheon on Sunday, where she talked about how the beloved comedy will handle such a serious topic.

“It’s a character that we’ll all be sad to see go, but it’s probably not an older character that you think is going to go,” Winter teased to ET. “We haven’t ever really had a death on the show. It definitely impacts the family, as I think it impacts any family. You know, some people have never dealt with death or if it’s a person close to them, they’re having to deal with them because it’s a tragedy, and you follow people’s stories on how they do that and I think some people obviously take it better than others.”

“It doesn’t hit people right away and it’s gonna be an episode that’s pretty relevant to how people deal with it, and some people’s struggles with the person that passed, and I think it’s a pretty real episode,” she continues. “And we try to do everything lightheartedly and it’s a show that people can enjoy, but also incorporate some real-life occurrences.”

Sunday’s awards luncheon was hosted by the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up initiative, which supports UN programs promoting the health, safety, education and leadership of girls in developing countries. Winter talked to ET about still learning how to deal with social media trolls in today’s world, and she offered up a few wise words.

“You know what, it’s a hard journey to move forward and not say anything and take the high road and knowing that regardless of everything they say, it’s untrue,” she says. “People don’t know you, and they only know what they see on the internet — which is a very small version of everybody — and they think it’s the whole picture. I, for a while, was doing fantastic and I wouldn’t respond to negative comments, but then, of course, you fall off the wagon. And because you get upset and, of course, in the current climate … you share your opinion and everybody takes it in a certain way, and then they bash you for it and you feel like crap and then you’re, like, well, don’t do that and why am I responding to this?” Continue reading “Ariel Winter Reveals ‘Modern Family’ Death Isn’t Who You’d Think”