It should come as no surprise that Ariel Winter has great ideas about role models. She's shown her knowledge of the television industry and displayed a shocking level of self-possession about her Instagram haters. And her turn as Alex Dunphy on Modern Family has some talking spinoff.
Many people would call her a role model. Winters thinks those people are wrong.
When she was speaking at an event promoting her new movie Dog Years at the Tribeca Film Festival, she broke down exactly why she doesn't think the term fits.
"It's a very loose term, because people misinterpret it these days. People push people to be perfect and say the right thing and wear the right thing and do the right thing at all times," Winter told Bustle. "But I think the most important thing of being a role model is being imperfect and being yourself, and teaching people that being yourself is perfect and you don't have to be this cookie-cutter idea of perfect."
That's true. A lot of the narrative imposed on celebrities is frankly creepy. They're perfect until they're not, and then they're trash. People are people. And holding up a 19-year-old as your platonic ideal for behavior is not going to end well for you or the teen. That's why we're happy Winter acknowledged that she and everyone else is going to mess up. It's true! The only thing to do afterwards is dust yourself off, apologize if you must, and keep moving.