International Day of the Girl
Join us in celebrating the voices, dreams, and leadership of girls around the world.
What Is International Day of the Girl?
International Day of the Girl is marked annually on October 11 to highlight the rights of girls and the challenges they face. It’s a global moment to listen to their voices, celebrate their potential, and push for change on the barriers that stand in their way.
In 2025, the focus is on ending child marriage. This harmful practice strips millions of girls of their freedom, education, and safety. This page explores its roots and impact and shares the powerful stories of girls who are choosing their own futures.
Child Marriage in Focus: Day of the Girl 2025
This year, Plan International is spotlighting child, early, and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU), a practice that affects 12 million girls every year. Plan’s 2025 State of the World’s Girls report report shares the experiences of married girls in their own voice, calling for urgent change and bold action. From informal unions to legal gaps, the findings expose how deeply rooted this issue is and why girls are fighting back, speaking out, and driving the movement to end it.
Each year, 12 million girls are married before their 18th birthday. That’s one girl every three seconds.
Child marriage prevents girls from attending school, puts them at risk of violence, and affects their mental and physical health – sometimes for life.
When girls can’t shape their futures, the world – including Canada – misses out on their ideas, energy, and potential.
Who created International Day of the Girl?
International Day of the Girl began as a bold idea from Plan International’s Because I Am a Girl global campaign, a movement that showed the world why investing in girls matters.
Plan International Canada rallied thousands of supporters and the Canadian government to make this day a reality. On October 11, 2012, the UN declared the first International Day of the Girl.
Featured Stories: Girls Leading Change
Challenging child marriage: A girl’s fight for her future
Can one conversation change a life?
At 15, Ngân dreams of studying and singing, but her future has already been arranged. In northwest Vietnam, where child marriage remains common and dowries still decide destinies, she dares to ask for something different: to return the dowry and choose her own path. Directed by filmmaker Hà Lệ Diễm, The Price of Dreams unfolds in Ngân’s own words – through diary entries and reflections – as her teachers and Plan staff join her in a high-stakes conversation with her mother.
Voices of change: A message from Colombia
A report from Plan Canada ambassador Lisa LaFlamme
Lisa visited Colombia to meet the inspiring activists and lawmakers behind the country’s 2025 milestone child-marriage ban. Her message captures her trip reflections, including her energizing conversations with changemakers and the stories of girls who’ve experienced child marriage. The visit offered a hopeful glimpse into an unstoppable movement, driven by courage and the belief that every girl owns her future.
Child marriage unscripted
Two girls fight tradition through theatre.
Neema and Bernadetta chose freedom over forced marriage – and found their voices on stage. In Katavi, Tanzania, they use theatre to challenge chagulaga, a tradition that pressures girls into early marriage. Filmed by Kijiweni Productions, this compelling documentary gives an intimate look at their defiance, their performances, and the power of storytelling to shift norms and inspire change in their community.
State of the World’s Girls
Our annual global research report on girls’ rights
New 2025 Research
Let Me Be a Child, Not a Wife:
Girls’ experiences of living through child marriage
The 2025 edition of this Plan International report dives deep into child marriage and how it continues to shape girls’ lives. One of the largest of its kind, the report features invaluable insights from more than 250 girls aged 15 to 24 in 15 countries who were married as children, along with youth activists who are working tirelessly and courageously to end the practice.
Their stories reveal how child marriage remains deeply rooted in many communities. Informal unions are becoming more common and often start online, making the issue harder to track, while harmful beliefs continue to normalize it.
The findings are urgent and deeply moving. They show how girls are being denied the chance to shape their own futures. But they also spotlight the strength of those speaking out, organizing, and leading change. This is a moment to listen, learn, and stand with girls driving the movement forward.
2024 research
Still We Dream
Girls and young people living through conflict
2023 research
Turning the World Around
Girl and young women activists leading the fight for equality
Voices for Change
A study of activism among young women in Canada
Take Action This International Day of the Girl
No girl should be forced to marry. When girls shape their own futures, they strengthen families, communities, and the world. Your support helps unlock possibility – for them and for all of us.
Girls have a unique ability to change the world and the lives of those around them. This gift is about building that power in every girl. It’s about girls having nourishment, education and protection. It’s about creating schools that are safe, and ensuring that girls are not forced into early and unsafe marriages. It’s about engaging boys and men to help achieve equality and opening up economic opportunities to women so they can overcome poverty and lead within their communities.
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