39,000. That’s the number of girls, under the age of 18, who are married every single day. Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair has spent the last 11 years of her career telling the stories of young girls whose traditions and economic situations forced them into early marriages. Her images have led her across four continents and through many religions and cultures.

THE UNFPA (The United Nations Population Fund) and the photography agency, VII, collaborated to produce this worldwide exhibition and online learning campaign to promote change and awareness about child marriage and its' devastating effects on girls. These stories have appeared in more than one thousand online and print media outlets including CNN, The New York Times and National Geographic.

Inspired by this campaign, Too Young to Wed formed a nonprofit dedicated to providing visual evidence of child marriage and it’s related effects, as well as on-the-ground support to the communities where the women and girls in these stories reside.

World leaders have begun to take up arms against the issue of child marriage as well. “Ending Child Marriage” was proposed as a crucial indicator for addressing global poverty in the post-2015 development agenda. In September 2013, over 100 states adopted first-ever resolution on child early and forced marriage at the Human Rights Council and in December, African ministers set an ambitious target to eliminate child marriage by 2020.