The Loiterer
Jane Austen wasn't the only writer in her family. Her eldest brother James and elder brother Henry Austen were also writers during their time at the University of Oxford. Both brothers went on to become clergymen, although Henry tried the militia and banking first.
James and Henry Austen founded the periodical The Loiterer in 1789, which covered University issues, much like a student magazine or newspaper these days. As well as founding the periodical, they also wrote a large majority of it. It ran for 60 issues between January 1789 to March 1790, which were published all together in a collected book in Dublin in 1792. During it's run, it's distribution was extended to London by Jane's eventual publisher Thomas Egerton.
If you would like to read any of the periodical, there is a copy of the collected book of issues here: http://www.theloiterer.org/loiterer/contents.html.
The 9th issue contains a letter signed "Sophia Sentiment" (a psuedonym), which some believe to have been written by Jane as there are similarities between the letter and Jane's juvenilia. If this is true, Jane would have been age 13 at the time of writing. The letter berates the editors of the periodical for not including matters of interest to women, but the real target of the letter is Sophia herself.
Other critics discount the theory that Jane wrote Sophia's letter as they find it unlikely that she would have written a letter so critical of women's reading choices. They suggest that it was more likely written by one of her brothers.
The Loiterer only ran for little over a year not because the young men left, but because the publishing costs significantly outweighed the subscriber's payments. James was said to be so disappointed that he would never attempt to publish anything again in his lifetime, which is a shame as like his sister James was considered a talented writer from a young age and even though his sister became a successful author he was considered the more talented writer.
