A motorcyclist dodges in the annual water-splashing festival to mark the New Year of the Dai minority in Menglian, Yunnan province April 13, 2015. (Photo by Wong Campion/Reuters)

Once upon a time a girl named Laura lived in Columbus, Ohio. She had a nice family, and got good grades, but it was always rainy and cold in Columbus, which was neither nice nor good, so she wore lots of sweaters and turned the heat up when her dad wasn’t looking.

Horse racing is part of Naadam, a festival organized every July in Mongolia to celebrate the People’s Revolution. Using children as jockeys in such races has a centuries-long tradition. Boys and girls as young as 5 (although the law imposes a minimum age limit of 7) ride in races that can be dangerous, with hundreds of horses running across the steppe at distances of 12 to 28 kilometres at great speeds. (Photo by Tomasz Gudzowaty)

Girls look at a newly installed “Renew” media point in the City of London on January 26, 2012 in London, England. The “pods” will transmit each market day and will include breaking news, weather and travel information, and information about sport, fashion, the arts and entertainment. The stations which will also double as recycling points are run by media company Renew. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

A Chinese girl touches the gun of a relievo featuring Chinese soldiers fighting with Japanese troops during World War II at an exhibition at the Anti-Japan War Museum to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japan on August 18, 2005 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

Salespeople roll out a reproduction of the famous work “Girl with a Pearl Earring” at the artist village on June 11, 2014 in Shenzhen, China. The Dafen Artist Village in Guangdong province, China, is home to thousands of artists who reproduce some of the world's most iconic paintings as well as create their own works. The village, on the outskirts of Shenzhen, is becoming a major center for original Chinese art. (Photo by Palani Mohan/Getty images)

Wearing traditional Belarus costumes girls jump over a bonfire as they celebrate the Ivan Kupala night, an ancient heathen holiday, held in the countryside near the town of Turov, some 260 km southwest of the capital Minsk, on July 6, 2014. People celebrate Kupala Night with bonfires that last throughout the night with some leaping over the flames as it is believed that the act of jumping over the bonfire cleanses people of illness and bad luck. (Photo by Viktor Drachev/AFP Photo)

A young YPJ recruit (in pink) arrives to the training base for her first day in training near Derek City, Syria. The YPJ schedule is demanding and requires discipline – new soldiers in training get about 6 hours of sleep a night and wake up at 4 AM to begin exercising; afterwards, their day consists of a full schedule of drills and classroom lessons. Before joining the YPJ many of the girls had never participated in physical activity or sports before. (Photo by Erin Trieb/NBC News)