Story highlights Meredith Hutchison takes photos of Syrian girl refugees as their future selves

One family cancels their preteen daughter's engagement after seeing images of her

Photographer: These girls "are powerfully stepping into their future"

(CNN) "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

It's a question that boys and girls in the Western world get asked all the time. But imagine never having been asked that question.

That's the reality for many Syrian girls, says Meredith Hutchison, the photographer behind an extraordinary project that asks these young refugees to picture themselves in the future.

There's 12-year-old Haja, the astronaut, in white with a goldfish bowl helmet; Amani, 10, the pilot standing proudly in front of an airport runway; and not one but three doctors, including Hiba, 9, who sees herself as a pediatrician.

"These girls are just incredible," Hutchison says. "They've experienced all this trauma and violence, and yet it doesn't define them."

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