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)

North Korean cheerleaders arrive at a rest stop, or service station, as their bus convoy carrying a 280- member delegation on its way to the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympic games, makes its way past Gapyeong on February 7, 2018 More than 200 young North Korean women arrived in South Korea to root for athletes from both sides of the peninsula at the Winter Olympics. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

Employee Jenny Forgie works on an orchid display at Kew Gardens in London, Thursday, February 8, 2018. The 23rd annual Orchid Festival is the first one with a Thailand theme, 66 volunteers worked on the 6,950 exhibited orchids. The festival is open from Feb. 10, 2018 until March 11, 2018. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

Model Heidi Klum in front of Concorde jet after arriving for Victoria's Secret fashion show at Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2000. (Photo by Marion Curtis/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

A couple wearing protective masks take a picture of a rose on Valentine's Day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on February 14, 2022. (Photo by Hasnoor Hussain/Reuters)

A Taliban helicopter takes off after bringing aid to the site of an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan on June 23, 2022. A powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing at least 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 more in one of the country's deadliest quakes in decades, the state-run news agency reported. (Photo by Ali Khara/Reuters)

President Joe Biden holds a baby as he visits a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Church of the Holy Communion Tuesday, June 21, 2022, in Washington. (Photo by Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

Sophia Fernandes, a member of the Kalunga quilombo, the descendants of runaway slaves, dons traditional afro braids, during the culmination of the week-long pilgrimage and celebration for the patron saint “Nossa Senhora da Abadia” or Our Lady of Abadia, in the rural area of Cavalcante in Goias state, Brazil, Saturday, August 13, 2022. Devotees celebrate Our Lady of Abadia at this time of the year with weddings, baptisms and by crowning distinguished community members, as they maintain cultural practices originating from Africa that mix with Catholic traditions. (Photo by Eraldo Peres/AP Photo)