This story was originally published on Ashoka’s #LeadYoung website – EO and Ashoka encourage readers to share their own stories on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #LeadYoung.

Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, has revolutionized the livestock industry. By putting herself in the place of the cattle, she developed a series of equipment designs and a simple rating system to help the industry adopt new practices that reduce animals’ stress and injuries to both animals and workers. Today, more than half of the cattle in the U.S. and Canada are handled in facilities that use Temple’s designs, with uptake now across the world, from Brazil to Australia and New Zealand. “This didn’t happen overnight,” Temple shares. “The thing about changing something is that it’s long, hard, sustained work.”