A visitor looks at portraits of Mao Zedong amid his statues on display at a wholesale souvenir store in Shaoshan, Hunan Province in central China, 28 April 2016. Shaoshan is the hometown of former Communist leader Mao Zedong, popularly known as Chairman Mao. Thousands of visitors descend on this small Chinese town burrowed in the hills of Central China's Hunan province to pay homage to the “Great Helmsman” everyday. It is one of the core sites of the “Red Tourism” industry, where communist party cadres and ordinary Chinese tourists alike seek to relive the experiences and rekindle the spirit of the revolutionaries. (Photo by How Hwee Young/EPA)

In this September 14, 2017 photo, young women pose for a photo inside their squatter building that used to house the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in the Mangueira slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Many lower-middle class Brazilians who gained ground during the boom years have since slid back closer to the poverty line. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

North Korean cheerleaders arrive at a rest stop, or service station, as their bus convoy carrying a 280- member delegation on its way to the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympic games, makes its way past Gapyeong on February 7, 2018 More than 200 young North Korean women arrived in South Korea to root for athletes from both sides of the peninsula at the Winter Olympics. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

This picture taken on November 18, 2015 shows young participants preparing to release a hot-air balloon during the Tazaungdaing Lighting Festival at Taunggyi in Myanmar's northeastern Shan State. Every year in November as the full moon approaches, tens of thousands of people from all over the country gather in Taunggyi for the colourful hot-air balloons festival during which balloons lift fireworks or lanterns which illuminate the sky at night while balloons of all shapes are flown during the day. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)

Migrants try to board a truck at Ouistreham ferry port in the hope of reaching the UK on September 12, 2018 in Ouistreham, France. After the clamp down at Calais many young migrants are seeking out new routes to the United Kingdom as stowaways on vehicles making the channel crossing by ferry from French ports. The migrants, of mostly African origin, camp out on the roadside and woodland areas as the authorities prevent the setting up of any camps. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

As the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child, women's rights activists point to progress on a wide array of issues but say more needs to be done to protect girls from child marriage, sexual assault and other forms of exploitation. Here is a selection of pictures showing the daily lives of girls across the globe, all taken by female Associated Press photojournalists. Here: In this December 14, 2015, file photo, a young clown rides in the back of a car following a procession to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Hundreds belonging to various clown associations made their annual pilgrimage to the Basilica to pay their respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

A young Chinese girl kicks during a kung-fu class at Ritan Park on June 11, 2016 in Beijing, China. Ritan, meaning “sun altar”, is among the oldest parks in Beijing, built in the early 1500s during the Ming dynasty for the emperor to make sacrifices to the sun. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A Nepalese mother applies make up to her daughter dressed as the living goddess Kumari as they wait for Kumari puja to start at Hanuman Dhoka temple, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, September 14, 2016. Girls under the age of nine gathered for the Kumari puja, a tradition of worshiping young prepubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in the Newar community that seeks divine blessings to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)