20-year-old women visit the the Meiji shrine in Tokyo, Japan to celebrate Japan's Coming of Age Day on January 6, 2017. (Photo by Aflo/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Students dressed as Hindu Lord Shiva, also known as Nataraja, the Lord of Dancers, during a religious event in Mumbai, India, August 30, 2018. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

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)

A young woman looks at her smartphone sitting in front of a mannequin use to keep social distancing at a Chinese cuisine restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, 27 July 2020. Japan's total number of COVID-19 cases crossed the 30,000 line showing the new coronavirus pandemic is spreading across the country and not only in Tokyo and Osaka megalopolis. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

A worker puts up an advertising billboard for a recruiting company, featuring what resembles US President Donald Trump, in Zagreb, Croatia, Saturday, November 7, 2020. (Photo by Darko Bandic/AP Photo)

Commuters travel in an overcrowded train near a railway station at Loni town in India's state of Uttar Pradesh on April 24, 2023. India is set to overtake China as the world's most populous country by the end of June, UN estimates showed on April 19, posing huge challenges to a nation with creaking infrastructure and insufficient jobs for millions of young people. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

A Kenyan police officer calls for reinforcement in front of a lorry set on fire by protesters during riots in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobia on May 2, 2023. Kenyan riot police were out on the streets on May 2, 2023 as the opposition defied a police ban and staged new demonstrations over the cost of living crisis and last year's election results. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP Photo)

On the afternoon of the January 3, 2025, seagulls are gathering around a child holding shrimp crackers at Haeundae Beach in Busan, South Korea. (Photo by Dong-Hwan Kim)