Who we are
A small desk with one rule: be useful.
Plainspoke started in 2018 on a simple belief. Good information should be easy to find and easy to trust. Everything we publish is made to genuinely help the reader, not to fill a page.
Why we exist
Most guidance on self-awareness reads like a sales page, and most official information on disability cards reads like a legal form. Neither helps the person sitting at home trying to make a decision.
We sit in the middle. We read the research and the agency rules, then we write the version a real person can actually use. The answer goes up front. The sources stay visible. The tone stays calm.
No jargon, no filler, no scare tactics. Just the steadiness of a worn notebook and a sunlit window.
What we stand for
Four values, kept honestly
Accuracy
We get the facts right and cite where it matters. A claim without a source does not get published.
Clarity
Plain language, answer first, no padding. If a sentence does not help you, it gets cut.
Independence
Reader-first, not hype-first. We are not here to sell you a product or chase a headline.
Usefulness
If a piece will not genuinely help someone, we do not publish it. Word count is never the goal.
The people behind it
A small team that would rather get one article right than publish ten in a hurry.
Mara Delacroix
Editor and lead writer
Runs the desk and writes most of the long-form guides. Former public-services researcher who got tired of unreadable official PDFs.
Theo Vance
Research and fact-checking
Checks every claim against its primary source before publication. If an agency rule changes, Theo catches it.
Priya Anand
Reader care and corrections
Reads every message that comes in and replies. Turns your questions and corrections into better articles.
Want to read what we have so far?
Start with our two flagship guides, then tell us what to cover next.