diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index c5c1a269..fe0efe61 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -19,3 +19,6 @@
 [submodule "examples/assets"]
 	path = examples/assets
 	url = https://github.com/hexops/mach-example-assets
+[submodule "freetype/upstream"]
+	path = freetype/upstream
+	url = https://github.com/hexops/freetype
diff --git a/freetype/upstream b/freetype/upstream
new file mode 160000
index 00000000..bbd80a52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/freetype/upstream
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit bbd80a52b7b749140ec87d24b6c767c5063be356