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)

A Palestinian girl is seen inside the giant jerry can filled with water as displaced Palestinians, sheltering in tents they have set up in schools and along roadsides, experience the increasing temperatures in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on June 11, 2024. Especially children are the most affected by the extremely hot weather conditions, while the number of Palestinians migrating to Deir al-Balah is increasing day by day due to Israeli attacks on different parts of Gaza. (Photo by Hasan Jedi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A photograph of a girl carrying a baby on the spot of the previous day's car bomb attack that killed killed and wounded hundreds at the Sadriyah market in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 19, 2007, is inserted into the scene at the same location on Monday, March 20, 2023, 20 years after the U.S. led invasion on Iraq and subsequent war. (Photo by Hadi Mizban/AP Photo)

A girl looks on next to a damaged car buried in mud in an area heavily affected by torrential rains and flash floods in the village of Kamuchiri, near Mai Mahiu, on April 29, 2024. At least 45 people died when a dam burst its banks near a town in Kenya's Rift Valley, police said on April 29, 2024, as torrential rains and floods battered the country The disaster raises the total death toll over the March-May wet season in Kenya to more than 120 as heavier than usual rainfall pounds East Africa, compounded by the El Nino weather pattern. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP Photo)

Two rainbows emerge from a black storm above the mountains, on August 19, 2014, in Kingman, Arizona. Double tornadoes, lightning storms and rotating supercells – this is what it's like to chase storms for a year. These dramatic images show apocalyptic weather throughout 2014 from a lightning storm to a pair of rainbows. Roger Hill, 57, has been chasing storms in the United States for thirty years and runs a tour operation with his wife Caryn. His favourite photograph of the year was also one of the most difficult to get – as two violent tornadoes tore through Pilger, Nebraska on June 16. The spiraling winds killed a five-year-old girl and injured at least 19 others, and as Roger tried to get the perfect shot debris began to rain down on his car. (Photo by Roger Hill/Barcroft Media)

A Hot air balloon is seen at the Cup Hot Air event during the Air Sports festival titled “70 Years of Peaceful Sky” in Minsk, Belarus July 18, 2015. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Citizens are enjoying the festival by shooting hot spring water guns at the Yuseong Hot Spring Festival held on Oncheon-ro in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon in the first decade of May 2025. (Photo by Shin Hyeon-jong)

Some are in it just for the money, others to help buy a meal. Then there are those who trade for fun or to spend time among friends. Millions of investors – pensioners, security guards, high-school students – dominate China's stock markets, conducting about 80 percent of all trades. Retirees gather in brokerage houses dotted around China also to enjoy some company and savour the air conditioning on hot days. Some start as young as 13, trading from home with an eye on future careers in finance. Winning isn't guaranteed. This year, among the most turbulent in China's financial history, its stock markets more than doubled in the six months to May, only to crash amid concerns that growth in the country, which makes everything from cars to steel, is slowing faster than previously thought. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)