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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Ariel Winter wants Instagram bullies "to stop the hate" -- both toward others and themselves. The 18-year-old actress encouraged her critics to learn to love themselves in a post over the weekend after facing more body shaming online.
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"Every time someone bullies me online, it gives me a chance to re-emphasize to my fans, and even myself, how important self-acceptance is," Winter wrote.
"Those who say such harsh things on my Instagram, thank you for this opportunity - but the question I ask myself each time I read the mean comments is if this is how you talk to a stranger online, I can only imagine how cruelly you speak to yourself," she added.
"Stop the hate. Accept all that you are and know your flaws are what make you the perfect you. I love my fans and I love my bullies for what they truly need is love. Take the high road, there is less traffic. XO," the star concluded.
Winter had faced fresh criticism after wearing a tight crop top and skirt to Drake's concert in Los Angeles last week. She recently defended her sometimes revealing outfits and posts in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
"Everybody's so hyped up on the fact that I post photos where my butt's out. It's a butt! Everyone has a butt!" Winter said in August. "I get so confused as to why people make it such a big deal. It's like, let me live! I'm enjoying my life. You're enjoying your life. You should be posting your butt if you like it, too."
"It's really their opinion, I have my opinion, and that's what it is," she added of critics. "I'm not gonna fight with someone on my Instagram that tells me they don't like my outfit or I should put my butt away."
Winter is best known for playing Alex Dunphy on the ABC sitcom Modern Family, which will return for an eighth season Sept. 21. She recently deferred college at the University of California, Los Angeles until 2017.
