A good hairstylist is often more than someone who can just cut, color, and style your hair. For many women, their stylist is at times a therapist, a cheerleader, and a trusted advisor. This unique relationship is exactly what put stylists at the center of Stanford University student Diba Dindoust's current mission, The Makala Women's Collective, to improve women's access to healthcare.

Like many other Stanford students, Dindoust came to the Bay Area with dreams of inventing something that would change the future—in her case, in the medical field. "I wanted to focus on emerging technologies," she explains. But the more Dindoust learned about the present state of healthcare, her attention shifted from what she could do someday to what she could do now.

Volunteering at a free clinic opened

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