POSTING selfies and filtered photos on social media is harmful to women's mental health and self-esteem, according to public health experts gathered at a Women's Wellbeing Summit on Monday.

The summit, at Langtree Park, launched the Star's We Can! campaign, which is being held in partnership with St Helens Council and aims to boost the health and aspirations of the borough's women.

Issues addressed at the summit included unattainable perfection, motherhood, alcohol use, keeping active and domestic abuse. Attendees were also told women are taking on some of the unhealthier aspects of male behaviour,

Around 100 figures from health, education and other organisations from St Helens and the wider area, attended the summit, with the aim of starting a conversation about how to address the issues that are holding some women back.

Dympna Edwards, St Helens' assistant director of public health, said: "Young women are bombarded with images from an early age across social media - these are photo-shopped images and nobody is ever going to be able to achieve that."

Councillor Jeanie Bell, St Helens cabinet member for public health and wellbeing, said: "This campaign is saying women don't have to not like the way they look to want to be healthy. It's about enjoying activity for its own sake - for the social benefits and for self-respect - not to attain unrealistic physical perfection.

"Selfie culture is leading to mental health issues."

She talked about the female role models who inspired her – her mother, who battled polio and disability, her "highly political" grandmother, and her three sisters, one of whom was the first girl from the family to go to university.

Interim director of public health at St Helens Council, Sue Forster, highlighted the health areas being targeted by the campaign, including deaths related to alcohol use, numbers of women smoking during pregnancy, breastfeeding rates, domestic abuse and self-harm.

She said: "It's not all doom and gloom. We are doing well in some areas, like screening for breast and cervical cancer.

"Rates of domestic abuse are high, with the victim being a woman in the majority of cases; three-quarters of self-harmers admitted to hospital in 2015-16 were women and the number of women in work is 63.8 per cent, below the national average.

"We are now second highest in the country for alcohol-specific deaths in women, second only to Blackpool.

"We need to challenge our culture – women are taking on what would traditionally have been male behaviour. We need to find a balance."

She also shared the inspirational stories of two high achieving St Helens women of the past - footballer Lily Parr, whose team played to a 53,000 crowd at Goodison Park on Boxing Day 1920, and Hannah Rosbotham, who was presented with the Albert Medal in 1881 by Queen Victoria after saving schoolchildren when a building collapsed.

One of the summit's highlights was speaker Mary Ellison, a 66-year-old resident who told the story of how she has taken a positive attitude to life following a cycling injury in which her pelvis was shattered and her spine broken in four places.

Over the coming months, as part of the campaign, the Star will be sharing the stories of some truly inspirational local women.

Any women who have an inspirational story to share can contact paula.morris@newsquest.co.uk.