INTERNATIONAL Women's day will be celebrated on Monday. Thousands of events are held throughout the world on this day to inspire women and celebrate their achievements.

In some countries including China, Russia and Vietnam, the day is an official holiday.

So this year we at the Buddle Lane girls group decided we would celebrate by writing about women who inspire us.

Lots of us are inspired by family members, aunties, sisters, nans and particularly mums, who have often been through a lot and come out the other side smiling.

We all have different kinds of families but the people we think of as mum — whether that's a foster mum, biological mum, grandma or step mum — are the women who help us through the rough times, sorting things out for us and telling us things are going to be okay.

Another inspirational woman is author Jacqueline Wilson who we feel really understood the way that young women think about things. Within the group, we had all at some point related to a character in her books.

Some adults don't like the fact that she writes about real issues for young people, but we think it's important to have someone writing about the things that affect us as it gives us the confidence to deal with real life situations and lets us know that we are not the only person who has ever had that problem.

Inspirational women from the past include the suffragettes, who fought for women's right to vote. We are grateful to them for making sure that women got their voices heard and showed that they had important things to say and weren't just around to clean the house and take care of the kids. The right to vote is one that we no longer have to fight for.

Regarding modern women we have different ideas about who was inspirational. Some of us admire Cheryl Cole and Katie Price for their independence, style and strength, whereas others of us feel they aren't great role models for young women, putting too much emphasis on the way that people look.

We like Lady Gaga because she has her own ideas and doesn't care what other people think, and Alexandra Burke for showing us that we shouldn't give up on our dreams and that we can succeed if we try.

All women around the world have their own opinions and feelings, things that make them different and things that make them the same. Women in some countries have to fight hard for their rights, while we have made big steps in equality in this country, but still have some things to fight for.

International Women's Day is important because we should celebrate and show the world we are proud of who we are, amazing women everywhere!