The festival marks the end of the monsoon season and beginning of autumn. More than hundred girls under the age of nine gathered for the tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in Newar community. It is a community affair held primarily to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. Photo: A young Nepalese girl dressed as a Kumari or living Goddess, smiles for camera as she waits for Kumari puja at Hanuman Dhoka, Basantapur Durbar Square in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 17, 2013. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Members of a teenage girl gang convincing an unwilling recruit to join the gang, circa 1955. (Photo by Vecchio/Three Lions)

Girls stand on the rocks consulting a magazine as they carry their trays with fruits for sell, in Dakar, Senegal on February 28, 2021. (Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

Girls sits on a bench during summer at the Central Park in New York, United States, 2011. (Photo by An Rong Xu)

Girls hold hands as they arrive their New Year parties in Newcastle, England on December 31, 2019. (Photo by Craig Connor/North News and Pictures)

An Afghan girl harvests Cotton buds at a field on the outskirts of Balkh province, Afghanistan, November 15, 2014. (Photo by Sayed Mustafa/EPA)

“The girl behind the camera and the girl in front of the camera”, May 2012. (Photo by: Mandy Rosen; Source: Flickr)