Ariel Winter, the 19-year-old "Modern Family" star, is known for her flamboyant fashion sense and emphatic body positivity (which she recently credited to co-star Sofia Vergara.)
So it should come as no surprise that the outspoken actress posted an Instagram photo of herself Thursday in a jet black, lacy crop top and the shortest of shorts in the middle of summer.
In the photo, Winter is surrounded by a group of friends, including other actors, and posted it with the word “squad” and a money bag icon in the caption.
Still, the haters had to hate. As is her way, Winter didn’t let the issue lie. Later that night, she took to Twitter with a "rant," targeting the armchair fashion critics.
"Pretty annoyed about the focus on the fact that I wear shorts, and the commentary that I’m 'squeezing' into them, or the idea that it’s not okay for me to wear shorts. It’s SUMMER. Get over it,” she wrote.
But after defending her clothing choice, she went on to attack anyone who felt the need to criticize a woman’s physical attributes. “Please leave young women alone," she wrote. "We’re just living our lives. It’s really troubling that we even have to deal with this kind of stuff nowadays. Please stop criticizing everything everyone does!!!!!”
It’s not the first time the teenager has come under scrutiny for her style. When she was 17, she was berated for sharing a photo of herself in a bikini. Last year, she was chastised for wearing a form-fitting dress to her high school graduation party. Earlier this year, she defended her odd-one-out choice of a minidress at a "Modern Family" red carpet event.
One thing’s for sure: she never shies away from taking on the detractors. In a January interview with Self magazine, she discussed her breast reduction surgery, and acknowledged the challenges of growing up in the spotlight, including the toll it took on her self-esteem.
"It was hard for me to not fall prey to wanting to change the way I felt and the way I did things and the way I looked because of what other people said," Winter said in the interview. "But as I got older, I started to realize that as long as I’m positive in my life and as long as I feel good about my decisions and stick to how I feel and the things I want to do, that’s what’s most important."