A man in a mock space suit experiences walking in space at “Mars Base 1 Camp” on May 15, 2023 in Jinchang, Gansu Province of China. The simulated Mars base allows visitors to immerse themselves in the Mars experience. (Photo by Li Yalong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Light painting on the beach at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, United Kingdom on April 25, 2023 using burning steel wool spun around on a rope sending sparks flying. (Photo by Kevin Jay/Picture Exclusive)

A mural depicting a resting cat by Russian street artist Vladi is photographed by a man outside a hotel in Hong Kong on November 27, 2023. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

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)

Couples take part in a competition during a mass wedding of 64 doctoral student couples at Harbin Institute of Technology, a university in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Passengers board children through the window of a bus as Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) resumed bus services after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, at Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad on May 20, 2020. (Photo by Noah Seelam/AFP Photo)

Demonstrators march in Port-au-Prince on February 14, 2021, to protest against the government of President Jovenel Moise. Several thousand people demonstrated Sunday in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, saying the government was trying to establish a new dictatorship and denouncing international support for President Jovenel Moise. The protests were mostly peaceful, although a few clashes broke out between some demonstrators and police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets. (Photo by Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP Photo)

A girl takes a skateboard class from the NGO “CDD Skate Arte”, at a public skate park in the City of God favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, August 5, 2021. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)