Top 10 Outstanding Facts about Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin 70th Annual Peabody Awards. Image by Peabody Awards-Wikimedia

Top 10 Outstanding Facts about Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin is an American scientist and industrial designer whose own experience with autism funded her professional work in creating systems to counter stress in certain human and animal populations. She has many titles in her name; teacher, author, public speaker, and livestock consultant. Her work concentrates on autism and animal welfare. She is an imperative figure within the field of animal welfare. Her work in planning secure, compassionate animal taking care of frameworks for meat processors have gotten rid of incredibly cruel treatment of creatures from the meat handling industry.

She is best known for designing the Hug machine which is a deep-pressure gadget planned to calm extremely sensitive people, ordinarily people with autism. This gadget was inspired by the calming impact delivered in cattle that were put in a squeeze chute before vaccination. She noticed they came out of the chutes noticeably calmer. Her progressive approaches to the animal industry with have greatly improved animals, especially the cattle-handling. As an autistic, she is portrayed as the voice for those who are unable to advocate for themselves.

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1. Temple Grandin is not vegan

Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay

You would expect that such a compassionate person regarding animals is vegan. But no. She enjoys a good piece of steak regularly. It does not mean that meat lovers do not love animals. However, animals should be treated well and maximally utilized. Her approach eventually changed the meat industry and saw her recognized in the 2010 TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential People in the World alongside Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Steve Jobs.

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2. Her high school teacher inspired her work

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As early as age five, Grandin often wandered off into a fantasy world thinking of a mechanical gadget that would give more real weight than the covers or couch pads she wrapped around herself at home. When she went to high school that dream to invent something did not die. We all know that teachers can shape our future. When her High School teacher, William Carlock noticed her inventive nature she took it upon herself to nature that spirit. Unlike other teachers who were not convinced that tech would be the right career choice, he did not doubt her capabilities. He motivated her to study and pursue a career as a scientist and livestock equipment designer. Carlock also empowered her to seek the development of the hug machine.

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3. Her doctors had recommended she be institutionalized as a child

They say that we plan and God laughs! Often doctors or society at large puts us in a box and say that things are not possible. Often than not, people break out of that stereotype and prove themselves wrong. When Grandin was diagnosed with autism at age three, a specialist prescribed she is put in an institution. And wrong was he, Grandin grew up to be a world-renowned expert on taking care of animals and one of the most popular people with autism in the world. She attributes her autism which she says that it gives her the ability to analyze situations using sensory-based data instead of language. This gives her an advantage as many people would not notice what she does. She has accomplished so much in animal welfare and her designs have stepped up the quality standards of meat and livestock industries.

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4. HBO made a movie about her life

HBO family logo. Photo by HBO-Wikimedia

Movies based on true stories tend to pick inspiring or interesting stories. Grandin’s life has been nothing but phenomenal. Life has been one of the challenges but despite all these shortcomings, she has accomplished so much more than a ‘normie’. The movie was based on her books Emergence and Thinking in Pictures. It got several awards including Primetime Emmy Awards, and the actress Claire Danes earned a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her portrayal of Grandin.

5. She is an established author

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

Not only is she an author she is a good and established one. She did not speak for her first four years. That saw her get into early speech therapy and interventions. Now she is one of the most powerful voices in modern science and one of the first individuals with autism to share their experiences and perspectives with the world! Her books are on both autism and animal science. She has authored or co-authored dozens of books and peer-reviewed scientific papers on a wide variety of topics including autism, livestock handling, environmental enrichment, and animal safety.

6. She has a photographic mind

Some people on the autism spectrum may remember a name or a face but they would shock you with the number of details that they could recall. Grandin has often compared her mind to a VCR tape. It translates both spoken and written words into full-color movies, complete with sound. She can think in pictures which is an advantage to her career. Cattle handling facilities that she has designed are used all over the world including Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. She is also a trusted consultant for major fast-food brands such as Burger King, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s.

7. She was misdiagnosed with brain damage

Grandin was formally diagnosed in her 40s. When she was 2, doctors diagnosed her with brain damage. She lived with this diagnosis until it was overturned through cerebral imaging at the University of Utah by the time she turned 63 in 2010. Her mother did not agree with the diagnosis and when she was a teenager, her mother came across a diagnostic checklist for autism. After reviewing she concluded that her daughter had autism. This misdiagnosis led to a great rift between her parents. Her father agreed with the doctors that Grandin should be institutionalized, a thought that her mother strongly refused. Thank God for her mother as after graduation, Grandin went on to complete her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees becoming one of the world’s most famous animal scientists and the world’s most recognized person with autism.

8. She was expelled from school

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Grandin has had a tough childhood. Her autism became the subject of ridicule among her peers. And we all know that kids can be very mean. She attended Beaver Country Day School from seventh grade to ninth grade. She was expelled at the age of 14 for tossing a book at a schoolmate who had insulted her. She was the nerd kid whom everybody scorned. She has depicted events where other students would insult her by calling her a tape recorder due to her repetitive speech. A year after expulsion, her parents divorced and her mother remarried Ben Cutler. At 15, they spent a summer at a ranch owned by Ben Cutler’s sister, Ann. Unknown to her, it became the foundation that she needed to become the person she is now.

9. She has been criticized by animal activists

Image by Robert Jones from Pixabay

Grandin claims to understand how animals feel as her autism enables her to see the animals’ reality from their viewpoint. When she holds an animal’s head in her hands as it is being slaughtered, she feels a deep connection to them. Despite this, she has gone to build her whole career around the slaughterhouse industry much to the dismay of animal activists. There are always two sides to the coin and she has shown this. Slaughtering and consumption of meat are here to stay so how would we ensure animals are serving us right? How do we do right by them? Grandin attempts to answer these questions by promoting the improvement of standards for slaughterhouses and livestock farms. She examined the behavior of cattle; how they respond to farmers, developments, objects, and light, and after that planned the facilities with the exceptional purpose of reducing stress, panic, and harm in creatures being driven to the butcher.

10. She is factual rather than emotional

As a scientist, we do not expect any less. As an autistic person, the disorder affects every aspect of her life. She does not comprehend the emotional part that requires an emotional connection with other people. She has neither married nor had children. In the film genres, she prefers science fiction and documentaries to romantic ones. She only wears comfortable clothes and her whole life is structured not to overload her senses. Even with all these ‘setbacks’ she still enjoys a good horseback ride and regularly takes antidepressants. She also stopped using her hug machine and got around physically hugging people.