Special Merit Award. Mallory Franklin (2019). The British slalom canoeist has competed internationally since 2009 and won nine medals in total at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with four golds, four silvers and a bronze. She has also won eleven medals at the European Championships. (Photo by Richard Pelham/World Sports Photography Awards 2021)

A model (C) looks at her mobile phone while backstage before the araisara Sara Arai Collection show during China Fashion Week in Beijing on March 27, 2015. China Fashion Week runs from March 24 to March 31. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

Hundreds of festive, adorable canines and their owners took part in the annual “A Very Corgi Howloween” costume walk Saturday, October 25, 2014, at Green Lake in Seattle, Wash. The walk was put on by the Seattle-local “Corgi's R Us” MeetUp group. (Photo by Jordan Stead/AP Photo/Seattlepi.com)

Napoli fans celebrate after winning the Coppa Italia final against Juventus FC, in central Naples, Italy on June 17, 2020. Napoli won the Italian Cup with a 4-2 penalty shootout victory over Juventus following a 0-0 draw in a match played at the Rome Olympic Stadium. (Photo by Salvatore Laporta/IPA/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

A man walks near a boat which has capsized due to strong winds in Istanbul on November 30, 2021. Strong winds continue to blow across Istanbul where the Bosphorus strait is temporarily closed to boat traffic. Four people were killed and dozens injured on Monday in Istanbul, which was hit by high winds. (Photo by Yasin Akgul/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)