DO young women drink too much or is it a case of girls just wanna have fun? We asked the Friday customers in Blackburn town centre bars after recent national reports on binge drinking.

Julie Burke, 27, thinks young women do go out intending to get drunk.

She said: "I've noticed the young ones going out to get plastered. They go out to get drunk, not just to have fun.

"When I was 18 I went out and didn't really drink, but now they go out to get bladdered.

"It's like a competition now."

Julie Borland, 28, said: "I don't really go out. I like to have a bottle of wine at the house.

"But when I do go out I go to have a good time with my friends. I think the problem is that when girls go out now they feel they need to get drunk to have a good time."

Natalie Taylor, 19 said: "I don't go out and get drunk. But most of the girls I know do go out and get drunk. I think girls are drinking more because they think that they will have a better time if they do.

"Now girls of 13 are going out. I think this is the biggest change in drinking."

Nadia Butt, 18, said that as she works long hours she enjoys herself when she does get the chance to go out: "I work every day except Sunday, so unless I go out after work I can only go one day a week.

"So when I do go out I like to have a good time. I normally start on Aftershock shots."

Karen Haworth, 27, blamed alcopops. She said: "I think the problem is that alcopops are marketed towards young women. And women are drinking more shots too.

"They all have fruit flavours, so they taste really nice.

"It doesn't taste like alcohol, and you don't think you're going to get drunk."

Francesca Bridson, 28, thinks women's changing attitudes can explain the figures. She said: "I drink wine myself. I don't think it's necessarily the fault of alcopops, I just think that women want to be the same as men now. They just want to go out and have a good time.

"Women don't want to be stuck at home. But I do think the drinks are being targeted at younger women."