Stephanie Sinclair

Visual Journalist, Stephanie Sinclair is known for gaining unique access to the most sensitive gender and human rights issues around the world. Although she has covered the dramatic events of war, many of Sinclair’s most arresting works confront the everyday brutality faced by young girls around the world. Her studies of domestic life in developing countries and the United States bring into sharp relief the physical and emotional tolls that entrenched social conventions can take on those most vulnerable to abuse. Sinclair’s images mark an exchange of trust and compassion. But by consenting to be photographed at their most vulnerable, the people depicted in these images also demonstrate a rare bravery. The resulting images have been published in hundreds our outlets worldwide including National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine. Sinclair is the recipient of numerous other awards including the CARE International Award for Humanitarian Reportage, the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award, three World Press Photo awards and a Pulitzer Prize. In 2010, Stephanie’s photographs of self-immolation in Afghanistan were exhibited as part of the Whitney Biennial in New York.

Too Young to Wed (TYTW)

Too Young to Wed (TYTW) is a nonprofit organization founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair with the mission to empower girls and end child marriage globally. TYTW evolved out of a documentary project of the same name that Sinclair began in Afghanistan two decades ago. TYTW runs field programs in areas where child marriage is most egregious and underreported, serving more than 10,000 direct beneficiaries globally in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, India and Kenya.

TYTW traces its official launch back to 11 October 2012 – the first International Day of the Girl. Dignitaries from around the world gathered at the United Nations and, surrounded by Sinclair’s photographs of child brides as young as 5, pledged to do whatever it took to end child marriage. Three years later, TYTW’s international traveling photography exhibition on child marriage would serve as the backdrop for historic global policy decisions, ultimately helping to yield UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.3 which aims to “eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early, and forced marriage.”