Model Bella Hadid falls as she walks the runway at the Michael Kors Spring 2017 Runway Show duing New York Fasion Week at Spring Studios on September 14, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Rex Features)

A boy shoots a World War II machine gun armed with blanks at an weapon exhibition during a military show near Kirovsk, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, January 21, 2018. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A woman holds a picture as people pray during a funeral, following a mass shooting at a day care centre, at Wat Rat Samakee, in the town of Uthai Sawan, in the province of Nong Bua Lam Phu, Thailand on October 9, 2022. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

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)

Hotel ushers pose for a photo at Tiananmen Square as delegates attend the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China, March 9, 2018. The CPPCC is the top advisory body of the Chinese political system and runs alongside the annual plenary meetings of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), together known as “Lianghui” or “Two Meetings”. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

“North and South Korea staged dueling war games Monday as threatening rhetoric from the rivals rose to the highest level since North Korea rained artillery shells on a South Korean island in 2010”. – Associated Press. Photo: North Korean soldiers with weapons attend military training in an undisclosed location in this picture released by the North’s official KCNA news agency in Pyongyang March 11, 2013. South Korea and U.S. forces are conducting large-scale military drills until the end of April, while the North is also gearing up for a massive state-wide military exercise. North Korea has accused the U.S. of using the military drills in South Korea as a launch pad for a nuclear war and has threatened to scrap the armistice with Washington that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. (Photo by KCNA/Reuters)

Aquarium visitors attend a dinner party in an underwater tunnel in Tianjin, China on September 15, 2016. Tianjin Haichang Polar Ocean World opened in the city of Tianjin, southeast of Beijing, in 2010. It gives visitors a chance to see more than 150 large animals from the Arctic and Antarctic regions, including polar bears. (Photo by Feature China/Barcroft Images)

Santiago Eneme (second left) and his Equatorial Guinea teammates can’t watch during their last 16 penalty shoot-out with Mali, although they did go on to win at Limbe Omnisport Stadium in Limbe, Cameroon on January 26, 2022. (Photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)