diff --git a/markdownify/__init__.py b/markdownify/__init__.py
index 9b44d47..442e5e2 100644
--- a/markdownify/__init__.py
+++ b/markdownify/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from bs4 import BeautifulSoup, NavigableString
 import re
+import six
 
 
 convert_heading_re = re.compile(r'convert_h(\d+)')
@@ -61,7 +62,7 @@ class MarkdownConverter(object):
         # Convert the children first
         for el in node.children:
             if isinstance(el, NavigableString):
-                text += self.process_text(unicode(el))
+                text += self.process_text(six.text_type(el))
             else:
                 text += self.process_tag(el)
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7a3414c..0baa1f6 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ read = lambda filepath: codecs.open(filepath, 'r', 'utf-8').read()
 
 
 pkgmeta = {}
-execfile(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'markdownify', 'pkgmeta.py'),
+exec(open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'markdownify', 'pkgmeta.py')).read(),
          pkgmeta)
 
 
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ setup(
         'pytest',
     ],
     install_requires=[
-        'beautifulsoup4',
+        'beautifulsoup4', 'six'
     ],
     classifiers=[
         'Environment :: Web Environment',