“Maya” girl Ines de la Paloma, 9, (L), sits with her friend Nuria Sanchez Caballero, 6, at an altar during “Las Mayas” festivity in Madrid, Spain, May 8, 2016. “Las Mayas” festival is held annually at the beginning of May to celebrate the awakening of nature in Spring. Young girls are chosen to become “Mayas” and sit at altars decorated with flowers so that people can admire them. (Photo by Susana Vera/Reuters)

As part of FLAIR Melbourne – a Flinders Lane art festival – Melbourne’s Lisa Minogue presents stylised photographic portraits of Australian women of colour, their faces painted vibrantly to accentuate their individuality and encourage the viewer to study each face more closely. Minogue asked each woman the same question: “What do the words “coloured girl” mean to you?”. (Photo by Lisa Minogue/The Guardian)

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)

Lightning strikes the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in downtown on June 12, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A model poses at Checkpoint Charlie, a historic place in the German capital to promote the fashion magazine “Sous” on June 12, 2012. (Photo by Maurizio Gambarini)

Emilio Gonzalez from Venezuela poses during the Cali Tattoo Festival in Cali, Colombia, September 12, 2015. (Photo by Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters)

A women sits on the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona, April 12, 2015. (Photo by Jim Urquhart/Reuters)

A participant wearing a fantasy costume poses for a picture during the Hero Festival in Marseille, France November 12, 2016. (Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)