Caesar McCool, a therapy llama nicknamed the “No Drama Llama” and his handler Larry McCool greet a driver in a McLaren at the site of ongoing protests against police violence and racial inequality, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., August 6, 2020. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Reuters)

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 boy looks on as fire fighters try to extinguish the fire at oil wells, were set on fire by Daesh terrorists as they fled after Al Qayyarah town's cleansing from Daesh militants as the operation to retake Iraq's Mosul from Daesh continues, in Al Qayyarah Town of Mosul, Nineveh, Iraq on November 02, 2016. (Photo by Yunus Keles/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

“Unexpected humour”. The Dog and the Faucet, in Kolkata, India on January 2017. (Photo by Pau Buscató/The Guardian)

Indigenous people participate in a march commemorating the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples in Mexico City on August 9, 2023. (Photo by Alfredo Estrella/AFP Photo)

Crews paddle fast towards the turning mark during the annual Great Salem Maritime Cardboard Boat Regatta in Salem, Massachusetts on August 9, 2025. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jasmine Paolini hits a forehand during her first-round US Open match on Sunday, August 24, 2025 at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Ray Giubilo)

Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini, in effigy, are about to take a mile-high plunge over Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Georgia, June 21, 1942, as part of the scrap rubber drive. Private Elias Nour, who arranged the stunt as a farewell party on the eve of his entrance into the army, is on the running board. He guided as the “Axis” plunged to destruction. Spectators had to give a scrap of rubber as the price of admission to the spectacle. (Photo by AP Photo)