diff --git a/readme_renderer/markdown.py b/readme_renderer/markdown.py
index 6e71a43..95fcbf0 100644
--- a/readme_renderer/markdown.py
+++ b/readme_renderer/markdown.py
@@ -34,10 +34,12 @@
     from cmarkgfm.cmark import Options as cmarkgfmOptions
     variants: Dict[str, Callable[[str], str]] = {
         "GFM": lambda raw: cast(str, cmarkgfm.github_flavored_markdown_to_html(
-            raw, options=cmarkgfmOptions.CMARK_OPT_UNSAFE
+            raw, options=(
+                cmarkgfmOptions.CMARK_OPT_UNSAFE | cmarkgfmOptions.CMARK_OPT_FOOTNOTES)
         )),
         "CommonMark": lambda raw: cast(str, cmarkgfm.markdown_to_html(
-            raw, options=cmarkgfmOptions.CMARK_OPT_UNSAFE
+            raw, options=(
+                cmarkgfmOptions.CMARK_OPT_UNSAFE | cmarkgfmOptions.CMARK_OPT_FOOTNOTES)
         )),
     }
 except ImportError:
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/test_GFM_footnotes.html b/tests/fixtures/test_GFM_footnotes.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..953eb18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/test_GFM_footnotes.html
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+<p>a statement<sup><a href="#fn-1" id="fnref-1" rel="nofollow">1</a></sup></p>
+<section>
+<ol>
+<li id="fn-1">
+<p>this is true <a href="#fnref-1" rel="nofollow">↩</a></p>
+</li>
+</ol>
+</section>
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/test_GFM_footnotes.md b/tests/fixtures/test_GFM_footnotes.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce41f52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/test_GFM_footnotes.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+a statement[^1]
+
+[^1]: this is true