Too Young to Wed

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Too Young to Wed

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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.

10/23/2026

What does it take for a girl to keep learning? The answer is not always found in the classroom.

In Rajasthan, girls came to the program with different circumstances and different needs. For some, the pathway was catching up on learning. For others, it was a bridge back into school or the chance to build practical skills.

That is why Too Young to Wed and our partner, the Centre for Unfolding Learning Potentials, worked across three connected approaches: compensatory education centers, bridge courses and skills training, reaching 368 girls.

The program was originally planned for six months. Families asked for it to continue, and it ran for ten.

That response matters. It is part of what working closely with girls and communities allows us to understand: education does not exist separately from the rest of a girl’s life. Learning, work, economic opportunity and family circumstances can all shape the choices available to her.

Our job is not to assume there is one pathway that works for every girl. It is to listen closely enough to understand what is needed, and build from there.
Support TYTW’s work alongside girls and communities. Give through the link in our bio.

10/21/2026

What does water have to do with a girl’s future? More than you might think.

Yesterday, we distributed 10,000 liters of water to 200 people in Namunyak, Kenya, with water for their livestock, too.
The community is facing a severe drought. And when families lose their livestock, they risk losing the income that puts food on the table and keeps children in school.

For girls, that economic pressure can mean a greater risk of child marriage. In Samburu County, roughly 1 in 3 girls marries before turning 18.

We’ve learned from working alongside girls and their communities that protecting their futures means looking at the whole picture: education, livelihoods, safety, and the choices available to them.

That’s why water matters.

Just $5 could help bring another 270 liters of water at the same distribution cost.

Help us reach more families. Donate through the link in our bio.

10/17/2026

This week TYTW joined ninth-grade students at the United Nations International School for a conversation about child marriage, human rights, and the choices every girl deserves to make about her own future.
It was also Flag Day at UNIS, and many students were dressed in the colors of their home countries—a wonderful backdrop for a conversation about rights that transcend borders.

Through photography and stories from our work in Afghanistan, Kenya, and the United States, we explored the pressures that place girls at risk of child marriage, violence, and exploitation—and what it takes to change those conditions.

We also discussed the role boys and men can play in challenging harmful gender norms, supporting girls’ leadership, and building relationships rooted in equality and respect.

The students asked thoughtful questions about the girls in our programs, the challenges their families face, and what meaningful change looks like beyond a single intervention. Many even came up afterward to ask how they could get involved!

At TYTW, we believe girls’ experiences must inform not only how we respond to immediate risks, but how we work toward lasting change. It was encouraging to see these young people thinking critically about their own roles in that process.

Thank you to the faculty at UNIS for inviting us and creating space for such an engaged conversation.

10/16/2026

For Bibi Mina, a mother of eight in Afghanistan, rebuilding her livelihood means more than earning an income. It means creating a more secure future for her children.

Displaced by war and facing severe economic hardship, Bibi Mina opened a small grocery shop with support from Too Young to Wed’s Parwana program.
Today, she earns approximately $4 a day. It’s a modest income, but an important step toward financial independence. She hopes to grow her business and provide more opportunities for her daughters.

Poverty and child marriage are deeply connected. When families struggle to meet basic needs, economic pressure can put girls at greater risk of early marriage.

When a mother has the means to support her family, her daughters have more options for their futures. That’s why livelihoods are part of our child marriage prevention work.

On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we’re looking at what economic hardship means for girls, and why supporting families matters.

Join us in making this work possible. Donate today.

_Bibi Mina’s name has been changed for security._

10/11/2026

“Every girl should be self-dependent and make their own life decisions.”

That’s what Tanzim, a student in our program in India, told us.

Across the communities where Too Young to Wed works, girls have shared their ambitions, challenged expectations, and told us what they want to change. Their voices continue to shape what we learn and how we work.

Education, poverty, conflict, displacement, and economic insecurity don’t exist separately in a girl’s life. They intersect, shaping her opportunities and the choices available to her.

In this video, our founder Stephanie Sinclair reflects on girls’ extraordinary potential, their often-overlooked contributions, and what becomes possible when they have the power and opportunities to shape their own futures.

Today, October 11, is International Day of the Girl and Too Young to Wed’s birthday.

As we mark another year of working alongside girls and communities, we’re sharing our 2025 Annual Report: what we saw, what we learned, and how those lessons are shaping what comes next.

Happy International Day of the Girl!

Read our 2025 Annual Report: https://lnkd.in/djziaDre

10/08/2026

Read our newsletter here: https://conta.cc/4yzSi3W
Read our 2025 Annual Report here: https://lnkd.in/djziaDre

October 11 is coming! The International Day of the Girl is also Too Young to Wed’s birthday.

As we approach a day that holds special meaning for Too Young to Wed, we’re proud to share our 2025 Annual Report: what we saw, what we learned, and what comes next.

Across our programs, we reached 5,111 girls and delivered 562,273 days of learning. 99.88% of girls were protected from child marriage.

But some of the most important things we learned sit behind those numbers.

Working close to girls and communities changes what we understand about the conditions shaping their lives. The conditions that endanger girls do not look the same everywhere. The response has to be built with the community, not for it.

We’re proud of what this work has made possible. But the Annual Report also makes clear how much remains to be done.

What comes after depends on what we’re resourced to do.

Read our 2025 Annual Report and make a gift today through the link in our bio.

Thank you for standing with girls, and with us.

10/03/2026

Today would have been Jean-François Leroy’s 70th birthday.

While he passed away in August, Jean-François was TYTW Founder Stephanie Sinclair’s friend for 22 years, one of the earliest and fiercest champions of her work on child marriage, and a member of Too Young to Wed’s Advisory Board from the very beginning of the organization.

Stephanie remembers that he always called her on her birthday, so it felt right to mark his by celebrating the way he showed up to support girls over so many years.

They met in 2004, when he showed Stephanie’s photographs of women and girls who had self-immolated in Afghanistan at the Visa pour l’Image Photojournalism Festival. The work was incredibly difficult to look at. Jean-François believed that was precisely why people needed to see it.

And he kept showing it.

For more than two decades, he used what he had—his platform, his relationships, his influence, his judgment and, often, his stubbornness—to help make sure girls and their stories were seen.
That has always meant a great deal to us.

The work to end child marriage and violence against girls cannot belong only to women and girls. We need men who are willing to stand alongside them and use whatever influence, access or skills they have to help move the work forward.

Jean-François did that.

Stephanie often describes social change as a wheel, with all of us as different spokes. None of us can do everything. But each of us can bring something: journalism, law, education, philanthropy, policy, art, business, organizing, relationships, resources—or simply the willingness to open a door.

When enough people use what they have, in the way they can, change becomes possible.

Jean-François was stubborn, demanding, irreverent, incredibly funny and, underneath all of that, an enormous softie.

When he believed something mattered, he didn’t just say so. He did something about it.

And he believed these girls mattered.

Happy birthday, Jean-François. We miss you, and we are grateful for everything you did to help make life better for at-risk girls around the world.

10/02/2026

During , Too Young to Wed was proud to witness growing global momentum on efforts to protect the rights, safety, education, and futures of girls and women across the globe, particularly those impacted by conflict, displacement, poverty, climate crises, and harmful social norms.

From Ambassador Verveer’s powerful remarks on women’s rights to the High-Level Side Event on ending child marriage, governments, international organizations, and civil society came together to stress that the rights and dignity of girls everywhere must be protected.

We were honored to have our Founder and CEO Stephanie Sinclair, our Board Member Rachel Vogelstein, and our colleague Fatima Airan attend, moderate, and speak at these sessions.

A historic milestone was also reached: November 27 has been established as the International Day for the Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriage. We are grateful to , , and the governments of Canada and Zambia for championing this resolution.
With 12 million girls married before the age of 18 every year, the global commitment to ending child marriage has never felt more urgent. We must move from awareness to sustained action, invest in girls, and match every commitment with resources and accountability.

For Too Young to Wed, this moment is deeply personal. Ending child marriage has been our mission from the beginning.

10/01/2026

In more than half of US states, a child can still be married before she is old enough to vote, sign a lease or finish high school.

That is starting to change. Yesterday, California signed a law to end child marriage, becoming the 18th state to do so. And this summer, members of Congress reintroduced the Child Marriage Prevention Act, the first federal legislation to tackle child marriage in the United States.

This year, Too Young to Wed joined Tahirih Justice Center and other organizations in supporting the bill. Informed by survivor advocates, it would encourage states to set 18 as the minimum age to marry, ban child marriage on federal property such as military bases, and close loopholes in marriage-based immigration that can be used to exploit children.

In every country where we work, including here in the United States, we see the same pattern. Child marriage is rarely the first thing that goes wrong in a girl’s life. It often follows a school she can no longer attend, a family under financial strain, a home that isn’t safe, or the absence of an adult she can trust. Once it happens, it narrows everything that comes after: her education, her income, her health and her safety. So we focus on what comes first: keeping her in school, helping her family through hard seasons, and making sure she has adults she can trust. Alongside that work, we push for the systems meant to protect girls to do exactly that, starting with laws that make clear a child is too young to wed.

Passing this bill would send a clear message that the United States condemns child marriage wherever it happens, at home and abroad.

Tell your members of Congress to support the Child Marriage Prevention Act. Take action through the link in our bio (http://bio.tahirih.org/cmpa)

09/23/2026

Trafficking doesn’t always look the way we imagine. In some circumstances, forced marriage can also be a form of trafficking, including when girls are subjected to sexual exploitation, servitude or forced labor.
But the conditions that put a girl at risk often begin much earlier.

She leaves school. Her family loses income. Conflict or displacement separates her from people she trusts. She becomes isolated. Systems meant to protect her fail. Her choices begin to narrow.

These aren’t separate problems in a girl’s life. They compound one another.

At Too Young to Wed, that is why our work doesn’t begin and end with preventing a marriage. We work alongside girls and communities to strengthen the things that expand a girl’s choices over time: education, safety, trusted relationships, skills, access to resources and opportunities to shape her own future.

Because protecting girls from exploitation matters. So does building a world in which girls have more power, more choices and more ways to determine what happens next in their own lives.

According to UNODC’s latest global report, women and girls account for 61% of detected trafficking victims globally, and children account for 38%.
Your support helps TYTW work alongside girls before their choices disappear—and invest in the conditions that allow those choices to grow.
Give through the link in our bio.

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Peekskill, NY
10566

Website

http://www.tooyoungtowed.org/

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