The actress, who publicly endured family strife and endless bullying online as a child star, has found joy and a new sense of purposeAriel Winter opens up about her decision to move out of her hometown of Los Angeles in PEOPLE's latest cover story Winter says she's still very much involved in acting and producing,

The actress opens up about enduring years of body shaming and bullying from online trolls: "I understood what it was like to be hated"

In a conversation with People, Winter said that while playing Alex Dunphy on 11 seasons of the 22-time Emmy-winner, the media brutally critiqued her physical appearance. In the early seasons of the show, Winter was only 14 years old, which made the negative attention all the more difficult to deal with.