Photographer Mihaela Noroc travelled the world from Ethiopia to the US and from Guatemala to France in search of natural and authentic beauty. She introduces some of the inspiring women she met on her journey. Here: Ethiopia. “I met Samira in her best friend’s coffee shop. She is Muslim and her friend is Christian. I saw many beautiful friendships in Ethiopia that go beyond religion. But there were also terrible conflicts, rooted in differences of ethnicity. Samira’s serene look gives me hope that kindhearted people like her will make this world a better place”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)





China: “Among the most graceful women I encountered, this Tibetan mother of two in a rural village looked like this the moment she opened her door to me. She had been cleaning her house, and yet she was wearing her jewellery”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)





Afghanistan: “This is a place where people invite you into their small mud homes and open up their lives to you. It’s a very harsh existence but it’s all they have ever known and they continue to live as their ancestors did; practicing ancient handicrafts”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)





USA: “Abby and Angela are sisters with an Ethiopian mother and a Nigerian father. Both parents worked for the UN, so the sisters grew up in six different countries, on three different continents. After graduation, they both plan to move to Africa and put their knowledge in the service of that amazing continent”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)





France: “Ania was born without a right leg, in Poland. At 19 months old, she was adopted by a Belgian family, where she had a bright childhood. She always loved sports. As a kid, she was running on the rocks and in the forests, always feeling free and independent. She broke her prosthetic leg several times. Back then, it was impossible to have a proper one for sport because she doesn’t have a femur. Years later, determined to be an athlete, she convinced doctors to take her into a medical trial, and today she can finally run like she used to imagine when she was a kid”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)





Ecuador: “More and more tribes of Amazonia are starting to adopt modern clothes for everyday life. But they are still keeping their traditional clothes for important events. I photographed this young woman in her wedding outfit”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)





Greece: “This woman and her daughters fled the war in Syria”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)





North Korea: “Rarely have I seen such a concentration of uniforms; they are everywhere in this society. This woman was a guide at a military museum”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)