Too Young to Wed

Too Young to Wed Empower Girls. End Child Marriage. https://tooyoungtowed.org Unfortunately, millions of girls still suffer from a vastly different marriage experience every year.

Too Young to Wed is a nonprofit providing visual evidence of the human rights challenges faced by girls and women around the world. Using the power of visual storytelling, Too Young To Wed aims to protect girls rights and end child marriage worldwide. In many societies, marriage is a celebrated institution signifying a union between two adults and the beginning of their future together. Worldwide,

many brides are still children, not even teenagers. So young are some girls that they hold onto their toys during the wedding ceremony. Usually these girls become mothers in their early teens, while they are still children themselves. The practice can result in profound negative consequences for the girls, their families and their entire communities. Please join us in our fight to protect girls' rights and end child marriage.

At first, motherhood can seem the same everywhere. The love is the same. The worry is the same. The hope for your childr...
06/01/2026

At first, motherhood can seem the same everywhere. The love is the same. The worry is the same. The hope for your children is the same.

But the challenges mothers face can be very different.

Bibi Mina is a mother of five living in Afghanistan. After losing her husband, she was left with few ways to support her family. As opportunities for women became increasingly restricted, she spun wool at home while her sons collected plastic from the streets to sell.

Some days, the family had enough to eat. Other days, they went hungry if no help was available.

Through our Parwana Program, Bibi Mina received emergency food assistance and vocational training. Today, she is working to build a more stable future for her children.

When families have support, girls have a better chance to stay safe, continue their education, and shape their own futures.

Learn more about our work at the link in our bio.

ParwanaProgram

05/25/2026

For many girls around the world, the countdown stops here. Not because childhood ended naturally. Because someone decided it was time.

Child marriage is not a distant problem. It is happening now, in countries where girls are married before they finish primary school, and in the United States, where child marriage is still legal in 34 states.

640 million women alive today were married as children. 200 million of them before age 15. Each one had an age where her story should have gone differently. Where she should have been allowed to just be a child a little longer.

At Too Young to Wed we work every day for the girls still inside that countdown. She still has time. Help us make sure no one takes it from her. Link in our bio.

The Taliban in Afghanistan has put in place a new family rule that lets the silence of a “virgin girl” after puberty cou...
05/19/2026

The Taliban in Afghanistan has put in place a new family rule that lets the silence of a “virgin girl” after puberty count as agreeing to marriage.

She no longer needs to say yes.
Now, her silence can be taken as agreement.

The new rule also makes some child marriages legally valid, gives fathers and grandfathers wide control over these choices, and means that children married young can only ask for annulment through the courts.

This change did not happen all at once.
First, girls were kept out of school.
Then, they were blocked from universities.

After that, they lost access to many places, chances, and freedoms.
Now, critics warn that even a girl’s silence can be used to speak for her.
Every policy like this means a girl’s future shrinks when her voice is ignored.

Too Young to Wed still stands with girls in Afghanistan. We know them. We see them. We are here for them.

Photo by .

05/15/2026

Maybe you have asked yourself: can child marriage really be stopped? Is tradition too strong? Can we actually change anything?
Honestly, every one of us before joining this work has asked these questions too.
Some problems feel too deep. Too complicated. Too difficult to change.

But our answer is still yes. Because we have seen change happen. And through these stories, we want you to see it too.

Today, Rebbeca shares one of those stories.
A teacher showed up. A child found her voice. A father listened.

In our team meetings, we hear stories like this from different places we work. Girls standing up. Teachers helping families see things differently. Communities slowly shifting.

In Samburu County, Kenya, one in three girls is married before 18. Since 2022, our Sampiripiri Program has reached over 529 girls like Kaayio.

Join us if you believe one more girl leader means a better world for all of us. Link in bio.

05/11/2026

“They tried to take everything from me. My freedom, my childhood, my education. I was abducted, trafficked, and forced into child labour. I was denied the right to read and write.

But I refused to let them define my life. I fought for my education, my voice, and my independence. Today, I am the most educated woman in my family, pursuing my doctorate, building my nonprofit Mind the Gap Ireland, an award-winning activist, TEDx speaker, and keynote speaker.

I have become everything they tried to take away from me.”

— Destiny Vaughan, Future Clinical Psychologist, Early Childhood Educator, Social Scientist, Award-Winning Activist, International Speaker, Founder and CEO of Mind the Gap Ireland. A child marriage survivor who was married as a teenager, Destiny shares what child marriage looks like in real life.

This is what becomes possible when a girl refuses to disappear. Too Young to Wed works to make sure every girl gets that chance.

Our Mother’s Day campaign is coming to an end. But our work for a world where every girl has the right to choose her future continues.

Thank you for standing with us. If you haven’t donated yet, there is still time. Link in our bio.

For millions of women and girls, choosing their own future remains a luxury beyond their reach. Whether to stay in schoo...
05/10/2026

For millions of women and girls, choosing their own future remains a luxury beyond their reach. Whether to stay in school, delay motherhood, or even carry a passport, these are not questions they are permitted to answer for themselves. It is precisely because so many are denied choice that Cristina Mittermeier is compelled to seek out and share their stories.

Flor de Sal (40 x 60) and Polvo y Pétalos (32 x 32 in), part of Mittermeier’s Marks of Memory series, honor women whose lives unfold within systems not built for them. Centuries of displacement, restriction, and colonial structures of power continue to constrain the realities these women navigate. Each piece layers hand-cut floral forms, crafted from Mittermeier’s own legal records, immigration documents, and materials gathered over a lifetime, onto her photographs of women whose dignity persists despite histories of erasure and marginalization.
Far too many girls and women are still denied the right to choose their own path. Together, we can support a future where every girl has the freedom to learn, to grow, and to shape her own story.

Every mother who fought for her path made it possible for the next girl to choose hers. And when girls have support, they get to choose. That is what Too Young to Wed is working toward.

Thank you for standing with women and girls this Mother’s Day. Link in our bio.

She was a mother at 14. By 20, she was about to sell her kidney to feed her children.That’s when Too Young to Wed steppe...
05/09/2026

She was a mother at 14. By 20, she was about to sell her kidney to feed her children.

That’s when Too Young to Wed stepped in.

In Afghanistan, 28% of girls were married before they turned 18. Child marriage leads to early pregnancy. Early pregnancy forces girls out of school. And when you are a teenage mother with no education, no income, no way out, survival is all that remains. At any cost.

Globally, 76% of first births to girls under 18 happen within child marriage. It is not tradition. It is a crisis.

Through our Parwana Program, Ziba Gul received emergency food and vocational training. Because teen mothers deserve to know they can still dream. Still build something of their own.

“I want to work. I want to help my family. I would like to open my own store in the future.” says Ziba Gul.

When a mother builds her independence, she protects her children. And her daughter won’t grow up believing marriage is the only way to survive.

This Mother’s Day, your gift breaks the cycle. Link in our bio.

05/08/2026

In the United States, a child can legally become a mother before she can legally drive.

Child marriage is still legal in 34 states. Girls carry this for the rest of their lives. Women married as children are 31% more likely to live in poverty as adults. Teen pregnancy rates are highest in states with the weakest child marriage protections. That is not a coincidence.

86% of child marriages in the U.S. involve girls married to men more than four years older. More than 66,000 of those girls were not legally old enough to consent to s*x with their spouses. Outside of marriage, that would be a crime. West Virginia has one of the highest child marriage rates in the U.S. This summer, we'll be there.

Our Butterfly Program launches in Appalachia this summer, with our campaign begining Mother's Day — trusted adults, real skills, and community for girls who need it most.
Join us. Link in bio.

05/07/2026

In Iran, when a woman or girl demands the right to choose, the answer is a bullet.
This Mother’s Day, we think about what motherhood means when the state decides what women and girls can wear, where they can go, whether their voices are allowed to exist.

We think about the mothers whose bodies fell in the streets fighting for freedom. And the mothers who had to bury their daughters after them.

We think about what happens when women and girls lose rights one by one. First the hijab becomes a law. Then a job disappears. Then a classroom closes. Then a woman sings anyway and risks prison for it.

This is the pattern. It does not stop on its own.
At Too Young to Wed, we know that violence against women and girls is never only political. It is gendered. And when a regime silences mothers, it shapes the futures of every girl they raise.

As Mother’s Day approaches, we stand with every woman and girl in Iran fighting for the right to choose.

As TYTW launches its teen mother campaign, we honor the girls forced into motherhood too soon and the young mothers still fighting for freedom, safety, and a future of their own.

Woman. Life. Freedom.

Artwork by Sarah Shoghi.

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