Ariel Winter, Before and After

Alright, our first pic is of a 10-year-old Ariel on the red carpet. (Did you know she’s been working since the age of four?) She was such a cute kid! This was pre-braces, so her teeth have a few gaps, and her hair was a natural sun-kissed brown instead of the black shade she later became known for. Also notice her nose and lips, and how she was already tweezing her brows into a skinnier shape. 

By age 11, she was sporting a deeper, cool-toned shade of brown hair, but I don’t think this was a natural progression. Since Modern Family premiered later that year, I’m guessing the producers wanted it this way for her role as Alex Dunphy. That’s not unusual in Hollywood—Ariel revealed to People that she started dyeing her hair starting at age seven to have a better chance at winning parts!^[1]

She kept up with the dark brown hair throughout the following year, worn here in piecey ringlets that haven’t been brushed out. Not the best hairstyle, but I think we’ve all been there (or at least I have!).

Then, Ariel got braces, and even she wasn’t able to escape the typical awkward phase that most 13-year-olds go through. (The crimped waves and over-accessorizing probably don’t help!) It looks like her hair colour had faded a bit, with the sun bringing out its underlying reddish tones, and her tweezed brows were starting to grow. Remember, 2011 is when bold brows began trending!

By 2012, the braces were off, and she started experimenting with slightly more grown-up hairstyles and makeup. (She always did love a false lash, even here at 14!) Obviously, this is very much her original nose, but also, this is the original colour of her teeth. Although she doesn’t show them much now, I believe she had some subtle brightening the following year.

On the cusp of 15, Ariel hadn’t lost her baby-faced look, although that’s partly because of her red carpet style at the time. I can’t picture her wearing this cutesy headband, ballerina bun and pastel dress today! Now, take a good look at her nose, because I suspect she tweaked it shortly after this photo was taken.

See what I mean? Her nasal tip has retained the same overall shape, but now it appears smaller and not as prominent in relation to her other features. This was also the year that Ariel adopted her signature black hair colour. I have to say, she wears it so well that it didn’t even occur to me that wasn’t her own. (Brows are so important in that respect, and she always kept hers a close match.) 

During a break from filming, Ariel had a stint with red hair (one that she would later repeat in 2019 and again in 2020!). Even though it’s far from a natural colour, it looks amazing with her skin tone. On that note, I’ve always thought she had the most beautiful complexion.

Okay, this shot of Ariel at age 17 is obviously a little different from her previous red carpet appearances. Like I said, she has attributed her facial changes to “weight loss,” and seeing this, I’ll buy that—partially. It does seem like she was heavier here, which gives her already round face an even fuller look. The extra weight also makes her new nose less apparent... for now!

A year later, Ariel looked radically different, and I’m not just talking about the jet-black wavy hairstyle and dramatic eye makeup. I’m guessing she lost the weight that she gained in 2015, and having her hair covering the sides of her face makes it look even slimmer. But did she get something else done, maybe in the lip area? I think we can settle the debate with the next pic... are you ready?

Well, well, well! Ariel (who was 19 at this point) showed off what looks like new lips and a more oval face shape to go with her button nose. The lip fillers are especially obvious—the obliteration of the Cupid’s bow is such a “tell.” Between the procedures and the styling, she looks like the brunette replica of Dove Cameron!

Twelve months later, Ariel was a little heavier again, and she recently explained why in a Q&A on her Instagram. “For years I had been on antidepressants that caused me to gain weight that I couldn’t lose no matter what I did. It was always frustrating for me because I wanted to get fit and feel like the work I was doing was paying off, but it never felt that way.”

Throughout 2018, she apparently continued to dabble with lip fillers—notice the “keyhole pout”—along with some very Instagram-inspired makeup techniques. If you told me this was Kylie Jenner, I wouldn’t blink an eye. Are you even surprised that her fans were speaking out? I guess we’re not supposed to notice these things!

But what a turnaround, right?! I have to say, I love Ariel’s fresher look here. Although the keyhole lip fillers are still there, her brows are natural, and her skin, hair and makeup are clean and pretty. The question is... how did her face shape change so much? Well, that could be from a “change in medication” that “instantly made me drop all of the weight I couldn’t lose before just giving me back a metabolism,” as she explained on Instagram.

That brings us to one of Ariel’s last red carpet appearances before closing the chapter on Modern Family for good. Just like in 2019, she’s rocking a lighter touch on the makeup, and her lips aren’t so conspicuously plumped. But while her hair was still black for this red carpet, it’s not anymore....

After posting “bye bye dark hair... I don’t think I'll miss you,” she revealed a new strawberry shade on Instagram. With her practically bare face, it’s hard to believe this is the same person. Looking at her lips here, you’d never know she’d been dabbling with injections.

Fast-forward to 2021, and Ariel is now a platinum blonde. She’s kept this same colour for a full year, so it’s safe to say that a decade of dark hair was cramping her style! Personally, I prefer the red, but at least she’s ditched the heavy makeup (which would be way too much with this hair). As for her features, her upper lip is starting to unnaturally protrude... and is it just me or do her eyebrows seem more arched now, maybe from a brow lift or Botox?!

“I didn’t get plastic surgery,” Ariel has declared in response to speculation over her changing looks. Do you believe her? Examining her nose in this side-by-side comparison, I’m having a hard time!

To me, it does appear that she underwent a rhinoplasty... like practically every other person on American TV. But maybe she thinks it doesn’t count because all celebs do it, and it happened earlier on in her career?

Technically, lip fillers are not surgery, so she’s not lying there. But it’s super obvious that she experimented with them for a while, although it seems like she has cut back more recently.

Then there’s the matter of her new oval face shape and tighter jawline. I have to agree that the idea of her having “cheek bone and chin shaving” is pretty radical and far-fetched.

If there’s more going on there than weight loss, it could be Botox in her jaw. When it is injected into the masseter muscles, it can have a dramatically slimming effect. Another possibility is submental liposuction, which contours the jawline by removing excess fat. Again, technically not surgery.

Either way, she doesn’t want us to talk about these things because it’s “not supportive of women," as she wrote in another deleted Instagram comment.

Of course, it’s her choice to have whatever procedures she wants, and she doesn’t have to tell us anything. But if we really want to support women, we need to start recognizing how celebrities help perpetuate unrealistic standards of perfection, which have been shown to have a negative psychological effect. (That’s what this column is all about!)

There’s something disingenuous to brush off all these changes as just “weight loss,” don’t you think?