“Temple Grandin was born in 1947 in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in the USA. Temple’s mother was actress and singer Anna Eustasia Purves, who had a degree 📜 in English from Harvey University. Richard McCurdy Grandin was Temple’s father 👴. He was a real estate 🏡 agent and heir to largest wheat 🌾 business in the USA. Temple’s parents divorced when she was fifteen years old. Anna Eustasia re-married in 1965 to Ben Cutler, a saxophonist 🎷.

Temple had three siblings; one brother and two sisters, one of whom was diagnosed with dyslexia. Her younger sister was an artist 👩‍🎨, the second sister was a sculptor and her brother was a 🏦 banker.

Growing up

When Temple was a toddler, her mother Anna was advised to put her in an institution and was told that Temple was “no use to you”. Richard her father agreed with this advice. Instead, Anna took Temple to Boston Children’s Hospital 🏥 for support to find an alternative. On their advice, a speech therapist was hired when Temple was two and half years, and a nanny when Temple was three years old.

Against expectations, Temple attended Beaver Country Day School, but was expelled at the age of fourteen for throwing a book 📕 at another pupil 👩‍🎓 because he was taunting her. Other people in the school didn’t understand that her sudden outburst was for a good reason. By chance, Temple’s mother had been given a checklist which made her consider that Temple might have autism when she was in her mid-teens. Temple was only formally diagnosed with autism much later in adulthood.

At the age of eighteen she went to Hampshire Country School. She faced with lot of criticism for inventing a hug box 🤗 which also known as squeeze machine. This was used as a therapeutic device to sooth people why are hyper-sensitive. Rather than having the idea laughed at, she was supported at the school to experiment 🧫 with the machine to see whether it worked or not.

After Temple graduated from Hampshire County School in 1966, she went on to earn bachelor degree 📜 in human psychology and a master and doctoral degrees 📜 in animal 🦓 science.

Templ is wearing a red shirt with black details on the shoulders.

Living with autism in early modern times

Temple pursued a very successful career as an academic and inventor, and became well known in the world of animal science. She has told lots of people in her lectures 🗣️ that her experiences of feeling anxious in places that weren’t right for her really helped her design buildings for animals 🐮 that made them less worried.

Temple Grandin had years of dealing with stigma, but bravely became the first adult to be public about her diagnosis of autism. Temple Grandin’s first book 📕 called Emergence: Labelled Autistic was published in 1986. She published a book 📕 called Thinking in Pictures in 1995. This made her famous and respected by other people who were either diagnosed with autism or who had autistic traits, and she even ended up having a film 🎥 made about her life!

Today I want to help both young and older autistic individuals get fulfilling jobs.

I think it’s so special that support from family 👩 and college 🏫 when she was young helped Temple to overcome things she found difficult and find out what she was really good at. Her future would have been very different if her mum had followed professional advice at the time.

Don’t you think that everyone should have the chance to be the best they can?“