page_title: Temple Grandin
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Temple Grandin / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Temple Grandin’s talk at TED 2010. Français&#160;: Intervention de Temple Grandin à une rencontre TED (Trouble envahissant du développement) en 2010.
context_page_description: Mary Temple Grandin is a prominent proponent for the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter and author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior. She is a consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, and an autism spokesperson. She is one of the first individuals on the autism spectrum to document the insights she gained from her personal experience of autism. She is currently a faculty member with Animal Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University.
  In the 2010 Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, she was named among those in the "Heroes" category. She was the subject of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning semi-biographical film Temple Grandin. Grandin has been an outspoken proponent of the autism rights and neurodiversity movements.
context_section_description: I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life, and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animals respect.
  —Temple Grandin
  Grandin says that "the part of other people that has emotional relationships is not part of me", and she has neither married nor had children. She later stated, for example, that she preferred the science fiction, documentary, and thriller genre of films and television shows to more dramatic or romantic ones. Beyond her work in animal science and welfare and autism rights, her interests include horseback riding, science fiction, movies, and biochemistry.
  She has noted in her autobiographical works that autism affects every aspect of her life. Grandin has to wear comfortable clothes to counteract her sensory processing disorder and has structured her lifestyle to avoid sensory overload. She regularly takes antidepressants, but no longer uses a squeeze-box (hug machine), the device she invented at the age of 18 as a form of stress relief therapy, stating in February 2010 that: "It broke two years ago, and I never got around to fixing it. I'm into hugging people now."
caption: Temple Grandin at TED in February 2010
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