AwaE is fantastic for portraying that nuclear families (Dad + Mom and 2.3 kids) are not necessarily the ideal we should be striving for. In fact, all the families that are blood-related, and therefore forced to be a family, have major relationship issues - think the Pyes, the Barrys, or the Andrews. Let’s look at a few intentional families in the show:

The Cuthberts

Matthew and Marilla are siblings who, for one reason or another, never married or had children. As would have been socially acceptable at that time, they lived together because Marilla wasn’t able to be on her own as an unmarried woman. They acquire Anne by accident, and come to love her almost immediately. Although they have their fair share of squabbles, the three of them support each other through a multitude of issues - from health problems and financial instability, to identity crises and romance troubles. They may not be conventional parents, but Matthew and Marilla raise Anne the best they know how, and with all the love they have to give. 

The Blythe-LaCroix Family

Perhaps the ‘oddest’ family portrayed by the show, we have Sebastian Lacroix, a labourer who has emigrated from Trinidad; Gilbert Blythe, an orphaned teen whose father left him a farm; and Delphine, the infant daughter of Bash and his late wife, Mary. Gilbert and Bash call each other ‘brother’, and to Delphine, Gil is referred to as ‘Uncle Gilby’ by others. Initially, they worked together on the boat, and later on the Blythe farm. Now, they live together as a family, cook and share meals, and provide emotional support to each other as they face many hardships. The death of Bash’s wife hits the entire family hard, and they are forced to accept help from many women in their community to raise Delphine. While they have occasional arguments (usually related to miscommunication), Gilbert and Bash are the ultimate example of intentional family. 

Josephine Barry + Cole Mackenzie

An elderly ‘spinster’ (widowed after the death of her female life partner) and a gay teen runaway make the perfect pair. After growing up in a working-class family, and struggling to be himself in a closed-minded community, Cole heads for Charlottetown, and is welcomed, as well as unconditionally accepted for exactly who he is, by Josephine. She has company after being alone for many years, and he has someone he can relate to. Also, it helps that Aunt Josephine has money, so they can have extravagant parties with all their flamboyantly gay friends. It’s beautiful, and I love it.  

Deryn can't be a midshipman in the Air Force? Well, she probably could be a boffin, she's got the smarts for that and she loves beasties already. It can't be that hard, after basically saving the world, right?

And Alek would probably start missing the clanker technology after a while. He's in a foreign country and piloting and repairing engines was part of his life for the course of the entire trilogy, something that always made him happy.

So, they build their own airship. Deryn fabricates its life-threads and Alek builds the engines, and maybe it even breaks the record that the Leviathan set before. They could travel around the world, maybe even doing some work for the society.

They spend some time in the clanker countries and Alek shows Deryn the castle he grew up in, and he finally sees his home after running away as a child. He can speak and hear his own language, connect with his people now as a commoner.

When they're in the air, Deryn can finally be who she is without pretense. She doesn't need to worry that her secret will be discovered, no, she's the boffin who fabricated this ship and the Captain too. Nobody can tell her what to do and who to be.

YES THIS IS CANON!

(i wil try to write a headcanon about this)

so you pick up a mallet and start hitting. maybe you’re bad at using the mallet, maybe you get better over time, but after a while you get tired, bc you’ve been at it for ages and a mole is still popping up every 5, 10 seconds. what you don’t realize is, you’ve actually nerfed a lot of the moles. it’s just now there’s more space for the other ones to come to the surface and start making noise. but if you keep. swinging. the mallet. eventually they’re gonna slow down. 

My recovery began when I started treating my depression & moved away from an abusive environment. It took a long time for me to realize I was recovering, bc as soon as one thing improved, another popped up. As my depression improved, I became more alert and active–and discovered that my brain fog & self-isolation had inadvertently been covering up my sensory issues. I had enough energy to start school again–and bc I wasn’t sleeping & lounging all day, I was suddenly aware of my concentration issues. One mole bites the dust, another pops up. 

but the secret is: there are a finite number of moles in the universe. 

4 years I’ve been wacking away at these fuckers with a mallet. I’ve taken turns wacking depression and its cronies suicidal ideation & self-harm, followed in succession by previous dormant crap related to anxiety, adhd, spd, c-ptsd, and other 👎 acronyms. And behold: progress. (Atm i’ve finally convinced the furry piece of shit called Executive Dysfunction to come out of the ground, which is exciting bc wrangling this bastard means finally getting to work on longterm personal projects again.)  Moles still pop up from time to time, but my life has a lot more space for me in it

In season three, Anne With an E introduced a Residential School storyline, educating many people around the world on a topic to which they previously had no exposure. Anne taught us to take action to help others, so as a fandom community, Anne Nation has decided to launch this project to donate money to the Legacy of Hope Foundation.

Their mission is “educating and raising awareness about the history and many legacies of the Residential School System" in the hope that "by educating people about the maltreatment in Residential Schools, ongoing systemic racism, and intergenerational trauma faced by Indigenous Peoples we can work toward healing and reconciliation."

Our donation will be made in the name of Anne With An E and the money will be deposited directly to this registered Canadian charitable organization, so none of us will have access to any of the money.

This fandom has given us friendships, education, inspiration, and opportunity. It is our hope that we can channel that energy, enthusiasm, and love into creating a positive impact in our world.