Photographer Mihaela Noroc travelled the world from Ethiopia to the US and from Guatemala to France in search of natural and authentic beauty. She introduces some of the inspiring women she met on her journey. Here: Ecuador. “More and more tribes of Amazonia are starting to adopt modern clothes for everyday life. But they are still keeping their traditional clothes for important events. I photographed this young woman in her wedding outfit”. (Photo by Mihaela Noroc/The Guardian)

Women wearing flower and sprout-like hairpins walk past an advertisement board in Beijing, China, September 25, 2015. Wearing antenna styled hairpins in the shape of various flowers and plants at scenic spots has become a new trend in Beijing. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)

Residents in fox makeup participate in the Oji Fox parade to thank the outgoing and welcome the incoming year at the Oji Inari shrine in Tokyo late on December 31, 2017. (Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP Photo)

A man sleeps at Beirut's Corniche, a seaside promenade, in Lebanon May 2, 2016. (Photo by Alia Haju/Reuters)

Residents ride on top of an overcrowded “Jeepney”, a locally manufactured public transport, along a highway in Mogpog town on Marinduque island in central Philippines April 8, 2015. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

Kayaks, 7, poses for a picture holding toy gun in a camp where Christians displaced by Islamic State militants are living, in Irbil, Iraq, Friday, December 23, 2016. Iraq’s Christians are marking the holiday in his camp for displaced people with a sense of worry and despair, unable to return to their towns they were forced to flee two years ago by the Islamic State group’s onslaught. (Photo by Manu Brabo/AP Photo)

A ring-tailed lemur sunbakes at Melbourne Zoo in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on December 21 2016. (Photo by Julian Smith/EPA)