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)

People jump over a campfire during a celebration on the traditional Ivana Kupala (Ivan the Bather) holiday, the ancient tradition, originating from pagan times, is usually marked with grand overnight festivities during which people sing and dance around campfires, believing it will purge them of their sins and make them healthier, in Kiev, Ukraine, July 6, 2016. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Artist Jeff Koons sculpture Balloon Monkey (Magenta), 2006-13, with an estimate of £6,000,000-10,000,000 on display in St James's Square, London, before being sold by Christie's to raise funds for humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Picture date: Tuesday June 14, 2022. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)

Women's Sabre Gold medalist Olga Kharlan (L) and bronze medalist in the Men's Greco-Roman Wrestling Zhan Beleniuk (R) react as they arrive at the railway station in Kyiv, Ukraine, 13 August 2024. Ukrainians meet and greet the members of National Olympic team as they return from Olympic Games 2024 in Paris amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA/EFE)

A Syrian refugee girl covers herself with a blanket as she stands outside tents at a makeshift settlement in Bar Elias in the Bekaa valley January 5, 2015. Lebanon enforced new immigration controls at the Syrian border on Monday in a move to gain control of the steady stream of refugees from its much larger neighbour. (Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

An Egyptian Coptic Christian girl carries palm decoration during Palm Sunday inside a church in Old Cairo, Egypt, April 5, 2015. For Christians worldwide, Palm Sunday marks Jesus Christ's entrance into Jerusalem, when his followers laid palm branches in his path, prior to his crucifixion. Western Christian churches and most Orthodox Christian churches follow different calendars and observe Easter on different dates. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)