A young girl dressed as Hindu Goddess “Durga” sits near the deity's idol during the traditional “Kumari Puja” as a part of the Durga Puja festival in Kolkata on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

Olympic gold medalist Arisa Trew of Australia competes on the vert ramp during the second day of “Exposure 2025” an annual all-girls skateboarding contest in Encinitas, California, U.S., November 2, 2025. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

The Fuel Girls with their fire and pyro performance on stage in London on September 20, 2025. The Big London Tattoo Show, the UK's largest tattoo convention, is in full swing at ExCeL London, transforming the venue into a bold celebration of tattoo artistry and alternative culture. (Phoot by Imageplotter/Alamy Live News)

5-year-old Chinese girl Wang Anna prepares meals for her grandmother and great-grandmother at home in Zhuyuan village, Guizhou province, China on March 3, 2017. Chinese girl called Wang Anna, 5, takes care of her ill grandmother and 92-year-old great-grandmother on her own every day in a mountainous village in Zhima town, Zunyi city, southwest China's Guizhou province. Her father went to jail before she was born and her mother remarried after gave birth to her. Although she is just five years old, she started to shoulder the responsibility to look after ill grandmother and elderly great-grandmother. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

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)

Mariam, a 9-year-old girl, carries her brother as she stands with other children at an underground ancient cemetery in Jabal al-Zawiya in the southern countryside of Idlib November 26, 2014. Residents are using ancient caves and cemeteries as underground shelters to hide in during shelling from forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Picture taken November 26, 2014. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

An Indian girl dressed in traditional attire reacts to camera as she watches a cultural performance during Lohri festival in Jammu, India, Monday, January 13, 2014. Lohri is a celebration of the winter solstice observed by Hindus and Sikhs in northern India. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)