Ariel Winter tells fans who spotted breast reduction surgery scars she has not plans to cover them

‘There is a reason I didn't make an effort to cover up my scars’

Ariel Winter at the SAG awards (Getty Images )

Ariel Winter has responded to everyone who noticed her scars from breast reduction surgery were visible in a dress she was wearing this weekend by explaining that she had no intention of covering them up.

The Modern Family actress underwent breast reduction surgery aged 17, taking her from a 34 F to a 34 C, last year after struggling with severe back pain. In an interview confirming the surgery, Winter also described how she was sexualised by the media and objectified online which contributed to her decision.

She attended the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday wearing a strapless, backless black dress, which did not conceal the scars from the surgery. Suggestions that this may have been accidental were soon quashed when she declared the scars a part of herself and something she would not be ashamed of.

“That’s pretty much all I was known for and that upset me,” she told Glamour at the time. “It made me feel really uncomfortable because as women in the industry, we are totally over sexualised and treated like objects. Every article that has to do with me on a red carpet always had to do with ‘Ariel Winter’s Crazy Cleavage!’ Or ‘Ariel Winter Shows Huge Boobs At An Event!’ That’s all people would recognise me by, not, 'Oh, she does great work on Modern Family’.

Winter, who became legally emancipated from her mother last year, also revealed she was applying to colleges in America to train to become a social justice lawyer.

“I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with the court system,” she told People. “But with what I’ve gone through, I think it’s really important to become a voice for abuse victims who have no voice. I want to be able to make a difference.”