Take a minute and picture this with me. You are 13 years old. Your body is changing and you are just learning to become comfortable with it. You get up early every morning to help your mother get your little brothers ready for school. The early mornings don't bother you though, you are so excited for school everyday that you can hardly sleep anyway. You have never missed a day of school. Your favourite subject in school is science. There are not a lot of girls in you class that like science but you are very good at it. One day you want to be a doctor and work with young children who sick. Maybe you will cure cancer or HIV. Maybe you will develop tools for someone who is paralyzed. Maybe you will vaccinate an entire community. Maybe you will help bring free health care to the country. Maybe you will save lives. You are 13. You have many dreams, but lots of time to figure it out. Sometimes after school you and your friends go spend time together and talk about your dreams. There is a boy in your class that sometimes calls you pretty and it makes you smile. You are about to finish primary school and you can't wait to see what the next level of education holds for you. You are 13. One day you come home from school to see a man you don't know sitting with your family. Your father tells you that you are going to marry this man. You don't really understand what is happening. They talk for a long time but you feel too sick to concentrate on what they are saying. You go to bed crying that night. In the morning, you wake up and tell your parents that you are not going to marry this man, that you are too young and still have to go to school. Your parents get mad. Your father hits you. Your mother screams. Your family needs the money and this man wants to marry you. You are not allowed to go school that day. You help your mother for the rest of the day and don't say much. The wedding is scheduled for the day after you finish your primary school exams. You spend a lot of the next few weeks crying and start missing a lot of school to do things for your future husband. You write your exams and worry that it will be your last time in school. The day of the wedding arrives and you feel sick. You have a beautiful dress on but something feels wrong when you look in the mirror. Your husband is 29 years old. You are married. You are 13. Your wedding night comes and you are at your husband's house. Your house too - but it doesn't feel like it. You are laying in his bed and he is undressing. You have never had sex before. After a few months you decide to talk to your husband about going back to school. You wait until he is in his best mood. When you bring it up he gets mad. He beats you. Everything is sore. You don't talk about it again. You are 14. When you look in the mirror the sparkle has left your eyes. Your stomach is growing so you don't fit any of your old clothes anymore. Your husband avoids taking you to the doctor, but he is being a little nicer. You are 14. The midwife says the baby will be born any day. It is early, but your young body cannot hold it any longer. You try to remember what it was like to change your brothers' diapers. You are 14. Your body is permanently damaged from the birth but the baby girl is healthy. The doctors give you forms to sign. You have trouble reading them. You are 14. Taking care of a baby is a lot of work. Your husband does not help. He expects you to do everything. You are 15. Your stomach starts to grow again. There is a miscarriage. Your husband blames you. He beats you. Everything is sore. You do not eat for days. You are 16. Your stomach is growing again. You secretly hope it's a boy. This world is kinder to boys. Your husband insults you daily. You are 16. You are so scared you try to run away with your daughter. Your husband catches you. He beats you. He locks you up. You are 17. It is time to put your daughter in school but your husband will not pay for it. You must pay the school fees all by yourself. You have almost no income. You apologize to her everyday for bringing her into this life. You start working more to send her to school. You almost never sleep. You are 17. You are a child. For many of us, this is hard to imagine. But this is the reality for thousands of young girls across Ghana. Help them get out of situations like this. Support girls living in impoverished communities. Support Achievers Ghana.