When Temple Grandin gave her very first talk in graduate school, she panicked and walked out. Now she is a sought-after speaker at universities and other venues around the country, including the Woodstock Opera House, where she’ll present one of her acclaimed talks to a sold-out crowd Thursday, Feb. 19.

This is one of countless feats achieved by the bestselling author, activist, consultant to the livestock industry, professor of animal science and inventor of the “hug box,” a device used to calm people on the autism spectrum. Every one of her triumphs has served as a direct rebuke to the stigmatization brought about by the label of a disorder. Diagnosed with autism at age 2, Grandin, who is the eponymous subject of a critically acclaimed 2010 film, is living proof that unique minds such as hers should never be discounted.

“I think the mistake I made when I first started giving talks was that I said everybody who’s labeled autistic is a visual learner,” Grandin said. “Only a portion of them are. You want to build on the things that a kid is good at. And when kids get labeled, whether it be with autism, Asperger’s, dyslexia, ADHD, whatever, they tend to have uneven skills. They’re good at one thing, bad at something else. The problem you have with autism is that you’re going from somebody who makes big money in Silicon Valley to somebody who can’t dress themselves, and it all has the same label. With ADHD and dyslexia, that label has a much narrower diagnosis.”

A primary concern of Grandin’s has become the education of youth in America and the dangers of allowing potential skill-building programs to slip through the cracks. She was outraged to learn that five states, including Illinois, have cancelled funding for Future Farmers of America, thus preventing youth from having an excellent opportunity to become interested in agriculture.

“We’re [focusing] so much on academics that we’ve taken out things like art and sewing and cooking and woodworking and music and other things that introduce kids to careers,” Grandin said. “Kids have to be exposed to different things in order to develop. A child’s not going to find out he likes to play a musical instrument if you never exposed him to it. We have a gigantic shortage of skilled trades workers, especially auto mechanics and diesel mechanics. I’m seeing too many kids getting addicted to video games while collecting Social Security checks. If they were learning to work in the video game industry, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

It was during extracurricular activities, such as an electronics lab and a model rocket club, where Grandin flourished the most in high school. Not only did these groups provide her with an escape from the incessant bullying she faced in the classroom, they also led her to realize that the best education is one that is hands-on.

“Some kids are so tortured in high school that I would just take them out and finish them up online, but tell them, ‘You’re going to get a job, you’re not going to be sitting around at home,’” Grandin said. “If the kids are too young to be put in a formal economy, put them in a cash economy. I don’t give a [expletive] if it’s legal or not. We’re talking about a kid’s life. I wouldn’t put them in any dangerous situations, but there’s no reason why they can’t do something like scoop ice cream. When I was 13, my mother set up a little sewing job for me. When I was 15, I cleaned the horse stalls in a barn. It taught me discipline and responsibility. I also fed the horses and had to make sure that I never left the grain box open because that would [result in] a dead horse. I worked for 20 years in the construction business. If I had worried about everything being legal, I never would’ve gotten anything done.”

The importance of work as a key component of a healthy lifestyle is a principle that Grandin believes extends throughout the entirety of one’s life, from childhood to retirement age.

“Last night, I was giving a talk in Portland, and I met a teacher who had just retired,” Grandin said. “I asked her, ‘What are you doing with yourself?’ She said, “I like to do some travel,’ and I said, ‘Now when you get bored with that, why don’t you do some teaching and mentoring?’ People are retiring when they’ve got another 25 years of life. Why can’t retired auto mechanics teach small engine repair? I ran into the former president of Franklin Pierce University several years ago. He’s an old man on an oxygen tank, and he’s still tutoring kids in math. I think that’s excellent.”

Grandin’s life was the subject of a TV movie titled “Temple Grandin” that was directed by Mick Jackson and aired on HBO in 2010. Claire Danes won a Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild award for her portrayal of Grandin.

“I thought they did a really good job,” Grandin said. “It was sort of like a ‘60s/‘70s time machine. I gave Claire Danes copies of the oldest VHS tapes I could find of talks and TV shows I had been on, so she could mimic my speech.”

Among the recent films Grandin has enjoyed in theaters, she cites Morten Tyldum’s Oscar-nominated drama, “The Imitation Game,” based on the true story of mathematician Alan Turing, who she believes showed signs of autism and Asperger’s.

Gearing up for her latest presentation, the beloved speaker recalls her earlier social jitters and how she was able to overcome them. Working from a tight outline, Grandin utilizes slides and written notes to keep herself from rambling. Her efforts have paid off spectacularly well, as anyone who has seen her online videos, including her 2010 TED [Technology, Entertainment, Design] talk, can attest. And she has advice for anyone seeking to coax socially withdrawn souls out of their shell.

“Put them in a job at a shoe store and teach them how to approach a customer,” Grandin said. “They have to learn it like being in a play. It’s like coaching someone on how to act in a foreign country. Like Nike says, just do it.”

Grandin will present her acclaimed talk, “Thinking in Pictures,” at the Woodstock Opera House, 121 Van Buren St., at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, as part of the Woodstock Fine Arts Association’s Creative Living Series. The event is sold out.