(L-R) Playmate Victoria Silvstedt, Donald Trump and Melania Knauss at the Playboy 50th Anniversary celebration December 4, 2003 in New York City. (Photo by Peter Kramer/Getty Images)

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)

Children jump into the water despite strong waves after a strong downpour at Manila's bay, Philippines, Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Schools in metropolitan Manila have been suspended as Tropical Storm Danas, locally named Falcon, continue to enhance the southwest monsoon as it maintains its strength bringing heavy rains over parts of Luzon and Visayas according to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

A zookeeper wearing orangutan costume tries to escape while zookeepers hold up a net in an attempt to capture it during an Escaped Animal Drill at Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo, Japan on February 22, 2019. The annual escape drill is held to train zookeepers what to do in the event of an animal escape. This year a member of staff wearing an orangutan costume was captured and subdued with large nets, sticks and tranquilizer guns to make sure the orangutan did not get away. (Photo by Rodrigo Reyes Marin/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News)

Employee Jenny Forgie works on an orchid display at Kew Gardens in London, Thursday, February 8, 2018. The 23rd annual Orchid Festival is the first one with a Thailand theme, 66 volunteers worked on the 6,950 exhibited orchids. The festival is open from Feb. 10, 2018 until March 11, 2018. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

A vampire poses for a photograph as she arrives at Whitby Abbey ahead of a Guinness world record attempt to gather the largest number of vampires together in one place, in Whitby, north-east England on May 26, 2022. (Photo by Christopher Thomond/The Guardian)

English actress Diana Rigg as “Emma Peel” is tied to a railway track as a miniature train advances on her in a scene from the television series “The Avengers” in 1968. Rigg died at her home in London on 10 September 2020, at the age of 82. (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Lightning strikes above Perch Rock Lighthouse in Merseyside, North West England on August 10, 2020. (Photo by Bav Media/The Sun)