Ariel Winter posted a photo of herself — and she’s not wearing a bikini on a slice of pizza this time.
No, this throwback photo is a little less surreal than that.
And, believe it or not, it is the least sexy photo of Ariel Winter that we’ve seen in a long time.
Now, in addition to being a talented actress and a genuinely good person, Ariel Winter is a beautiful young woman.
She’s an adult and she can show as much or as little skin as she wants.
Ariel tends to show a decent amount of skin, and even flaunted a butt tattoo very recently.
That’s her right.
It’s also, you know, awesome for people who enjoy looking at her.
Because she’s gorgeous and usually sexy.
What you’re about to see is Ariel Winter’s least sexy photo, ever.
Not because she looks ugly in it.
Not because she has braces.
(Though it’s kind of tangentially related to that)
But because, when this photo was taken, Ariel Winter was just a kid.
That much is obvious.
We don’t just mean the braces — my family’s dentist wore braces a few years back and he’s, you know, old enough to be a dentist.
But this Ariel Winter at her most baby-faced.
The glitter around her eyes clearly indicates that she’s at a school dance, because no one else outside of certain weird scifi movies wears eye makeup like that.
Her hair’s in an updo that screams high school event.
And, let’s be real — wearing braces usually happens some time during or just after middle school.
She looks absolutely adorable.
She captioned the photo:
“#tbt to braces and this hair tho y’all”
It’s great that she’s in a place in life where she has zero hesitation about sharing old and potentially embarassing photos of her.
(Nor should she — she looked precious!)
And while some celebrity kids bear little to no resemblance to their adult selves …
(Looking at you, ever-bustier Kylie Jenner)
… You can really see that this is, for sure, Ariel Winter.
She has the same cute apple cheeks, the same eyes, the same chin, the same smile.
She even has the exact same cute little button nose.
She’s just not today’s Ariel Winter who parades about in daisy dukes with her boyfriend’s family.
We know that Ariel Winter didn’t have a good childhood.
It sucked, actually, thanks to her awful, toxic mother.
That’s why Ariel got emancipated when she was still a minor.
Sometimes, people who had awful childhoods end up as adults who have trouble functioning.
The habits and self-preservation instincts that help you manage through the nightmare that is your early life don’t work at all once you’re free.
The trick is to then find new coping mechanisms so that you can actually enjoy your new life.
We don’t know how Ariel managed to adjust so well, so quickly, but we’re really proud of her.
She’s a success story, career-wise, but she’s also personally successful, with a loving boyfriend and a long and happy life in front of her.
