Temple Grandin, an extraordinary autistic woman describes herself as different, but not less. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was less tolerance for autistic people than there is today. No one understood Grandin, or what she felt inside, some even doubted that she had a brain. Grandin's determination and intelligence along with the support of a few key people in her life helped her achieve her goals of changing people's perceptions of autism and overcoming the intolerance of others. These characteristics are crucial to the success of almost all young people, but are even more essential for people with autism and other disabilities. At a time when autism was rarely studied or known, Temple Grandin demonstrated determination and hard work while battling the disease herself, as she fought for the rights of autistic people and the humane treatment of animals. Her passion for animal rights was always overlooked by others who dismissed her due to her developmental disorder. However, her legacy lives on through her inventions and the conversation she started about the discrimination others like her faced. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Growing up as a quiet, uncaring little girl, Grandin's parents knew she was different. From a young age, Grandin's life changed dramatically as she spent the rest of her life in darkness and silence, caused by her autism. According to Geraldine Collier, author of "Picture Hope: Picture Temple Grandin," at the age of two and a half, Grandin had no interest in other people. The illness Temple Grandin suffered from had a significant impact on his life; Grandin had to learn to adapt to his new lifestyle from a young age. As she adjusted to her new life, she encountered several obstacles along the way. For example, Catherine Johnson, author of "Animals in Translation," said Grandin's lack of communication skills led to her "getting kicked out of high school because of her violence toward other students." Grandin's disability made it difficult to make friends and play with peers; in most social situations, she didn't know what to do. This dramatically changed her behavior when she noticed how restricted her life was compared to those of others around her. Grandin's frustration led her to resort to violence to express her anger. In the book “The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum,” author Richard Panek describes how “Some people believe that autistic people have no emotions. Grandin has emotions, but they are more like those of a child than those of an adult. Temple was ashamed and assaulted by her own sensory system. She never knew why she was different, but the information transmitted to her brain was like a waste of a bet. Children with autism have their own way of dealing with painful noises, confusing words, and overwhelming sensations. Temple's story goes far beyond overcoming a disability; his life shows us the courage and creativity of a person who is blessed to be autistic. Throughout his journey, many people encouraged Grandin to follow his dreams and never give up hope. Grandin was not afraid to openly discuss her fears and the challenges she faced in her professional and personal relationships. Mentors like William Carlock, who worked with her from high school from a young age,thought she had great potential for success. In Grandin's TED-Ed video, she recalled how her science teacher pushed her to pursue her passion, rather than holding herself back because of her disability. Temple was able to overcome what could have been a limitation, his autism, with the help of Carlock who fed his obsessions and let his autism become a source of strength. Being autistic has its good and bad sides, and Temple took control and embraced her autism for the greater good. When Grandin was 15, she was sent to her aunt's ranch in the West, this would be a very important moment in her life. At the ranch, Grandin interacted with her aunt's livestock and realized the deep connection she felt for them. She observed that she and the cattle viewed the world in the same way; she believes her ability to “think in pictures” like a cow stems from her autism. It was here that she first encountered the cattle chute and made the connection between its calming pressure for livestock and her own nervous system. She felt a sense of empathy for them that she could not feel for others. Her love for animals only grew as she began to develop a unique bond with them. This later allowed her to make improvements in the meatpacking industry, when she noticed the poor treatment of animals. When Grandin entered the field of work, she became one of the greatest inventors in her field. She began working in feedlots, which were horrible in the 1970s. The workers did not consider the animals' thoughts or emotions. They focused solely on forcing livestock to move along the assembly line, causing mass panic, injury, and even death. Given his empathy for the livestock, Temple felt their emotions every step of the way: “I felt their fear, their pain and their sense of panic.” Grandin walked through the entire production as if she were an animal and made changes based on what the animal would see and feel. The men in the feedlots laughed at his crazy ideas about “cattle psychology,” but once his design was completed, they were blown away when the cattle moved perfectly around the feedlot. When Temple joined the cattle industry, many people disapproved of Grandin due to her autism and believed she could not do her job well. Her communication with others was often abrupt, and as a result, she sometimes found herself alienated from her colleagues. Grandin later discovered that she had a unique connection to animals that most of her colleagues did not have, giving her a perspective unlike that of any other expert in her field. In his interview with Rosalie Winward, Grandin declares: I think in images. Words are like a second language for me. I translate the spoken and written words into color films, accompanied by sound, which play like a VCR tape in my head. When someone speaks to me, their words instantly translate into images. Language-based thinkers often find this phenomenon difficult to understand, but in my job designing equipment for the livestock industry, visual thinking is a huge advantage. Grandin's natural inclination toward visual thinking leads him to treat animal thinking through a completely different visual lens. Not everyone is a visual thinker, and most non-autistic people tend to overlook or even ignore the visual side of things. Grandin's visual thinking is a key point.