Girls from 13 countries share photos of their favourite activities and tell us why they love them.

Earlier this summer, we asked Assembly readers to tell us about their favourite activities — and they delivered.

16-year-old Öykü from Turkey sent a picture of her cleaning up trash from her neighbourhood beach. 13-year-old Beatrix from the U.S. described competing in showmanship tournaments with her chicken Jenebris. And 14-year-old Diana from Guatemala shared how her weekly astronomy book club inspired her to pursue a career in space.

See how girls around the world spend their time — when they're not reading Assembly, of course.

“This is our annual concert, when we show all our effort, every song we have practiced and our love for music together. My favorite part of it is being the chief organizer of the concert, which helped me to cultivate leadership and organizing skills.”

— Emily, 20, Taiwan

“In this picture, I'm playing netball in a huge tournament! I'm the one with her arms up defending the ball. I love this sport so much because it got me active. When I moved to the UAE two years ago, I was home-schooled so I didn't have friends and I would stay inside doing nothing. My mom signed me up for netball and I loved it! I made new friends, learned self-confidence and got active.”

— Catherine, 14, South Africa

“I launched a greeting card business aimed at creating more representation for underrepresented groups. I produce cards for different ethnicities, religions, sexualities and even cover health conditions such as mental health and disabilities. I’m passionate about spreading awareness on the differences that make society unique and diverse. I believe education and inclusion are the best way to drive social change. My cards are showing just that!”

— Avila, 21, U.K.

“I volunteer at a shelter. The other volunteers and I do our best to make the dogs adoptable, so we teach them to trust humans, then to walk on leash and to behave with other dogs. We also feed them and clean their boxes. The best part of volunteering is when a dog that didn’t trust you before, now trusts you and his/her personality comes out.”

— Roberta, 22, Italy

“In this photograph, I had the honor to win first place in a painting contest, representing gender equality in school. For me, to paint or draw is one of the most beautiful forms of expression that can exist. Thanks to this great activity, I can connect with myself and also reach the hearts of people.”

— Vanessa, 15, Mexico

“One of my favourite hobbies is bouldering — it is a form of rock climbing where you climb short walls indoors or boulders outdoors. I love how inclusive my rock climbing community is of people like me who have a physical disability — I have some friends who are also climbers with disabilities and we enjoy training together and using our imagination to find alternative ways for us to climb the routes!”

— Charlotte, 21, Australia

“Reading is my favorite activity! I get to share in people’s experiences from reading their books. I learn a wealth of knowledge from these books and this helps me in my everyday life.”

— Zainabu, 24, Cameroon

“In this picture, I went with a club that I’m part of to the nearby the beach to clean the area as much as we could. I love doing this because I’m aware that pollution is a big issue and doing something to prevent it, even something as little as this, makes me feel responsible and good.”

— Öykü, 16, Turkey

“I have written and published two books, “The Heart of Time” and “The Warriors of Action.” My goal is to inspire other youth to start doing their own things and to stop thinking that age is a limit because it’s not.”

— Maliha, 14, Pakistan

“This picture depicts me and my chicken Jenebris after a show. I show chickens in Polk County, Oregon. I have shown chickens since I was 9 and have raised chickens since I was 3. I love my chickens. They are my best friends. They each have a unique and special personality. In the picture, I had just gotten out of showmanship. In showmanship, you show off the bond between you and your bird and you are tested about what you know. I also compete in conformation where birds are compared to a standard of what they should look like, like a dog show.”

— Beatrix, 13, U.S.

“I love writing! I think this is an awesome form of human expression: it is both exact and magic at the same time. Especially with Spanish (my mother tongue), it lets you explore and play with something as common as the language you use each day to communicate from the simplest thoughts to the most complex emotions. I hope to publish my own books someday and touch many hearts with my stories.”

— Mariana, 16, Colombia

“We are a youth-based team in Malaysia who have designed an app that works with communities to take down barriers to education, particularly for girls. In this picture, we are doing a workshop for students on shared responsibilities between males and females in the household.”

— Abeera, 19, Malaysia

“I belong to a book club. We usually read books about astronomy. I’ve learned a lot of things that inspired me to work at NASA.”

— Diana, 14, Guatemala

“I do lighting for performances! For a production of “The Tempest,” I had to stand on top of a spiral staircase as a stand-in for an actor, as shown in the photo. Tech means everything to me because I get to work with others to bring a show to life. The lighting director and assistants and the rest of the team teach me new skills every single day and challenge me to do new things for the good of the performance.”

— Gwen, 17, U.S.