Boys contort their faces as they participate in a game where they need to slide a coin from their forehead to their mouth to win, during the annual Feast Day of St. Rita of Cascia in Manila, Philippines on May 19, 2019. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

Rice seedling festival is a traditional folk festival in longji, guangxi, China on June 9, 2019, during grain in ear season. (Photo by Costfoto/Barcroft Media)

Street artist Irony’s mural of a young woman on Jamaica Street in Liverpool, UK on September 22, 2019. The city has recently been transformed with bold murals painted by local artists on walls and buildings. Recognisable faces including those of the Beatles, Jürgen Klopp and Stephen Hawking. (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Wire Press Association)

A bull savar (jockey) guides his bulls as he competes in a bull race on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan July 1, 2018. (Photo by Faisal Mahmood/Reuters)

A unidentified woman protests at Broad Street for the pending arrival of Vice President Mike Pence at the Union League, in Philadelphia, Monday, July 23, 2018. Dozens of demonstrators dressed as characters from the novel-turned-TV series “The Handmaid's Tale” descended on downtown Philadelphia to protest Pence’s visit. (Photo by Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP Photo)

A man walks inside the flooded Cochin international airport after the opening of Idamalayar, Cheruthoni and Mullaperiyar dam shutters following heavy rain, on the outskirts of Kochi, India, August 15, 2018. (Photo by Sivaram V/Reuters)

The Mayon volcano continues to erupt as the sun sets behind Legazpi city, Thursday, January 25, 2018 in Albay province, roughly 340 kilometers, (200 miles) southeast of Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)

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)