With the holidays quickly approaching, hundreds flock to New Orleans to get their dose of holiday cheer in the Crescent City. Tourists galavant all around, and one thing becomes strikingly apparent: a New Orleans girl stands out from the crowd. There is no perfect profile of a New Orleans girl, but there are some commonalities that definitely give us away.

1. We can dress seamlessly for any type of weather.

It can go from this:

To this:

all within the same hour, but a New Orleans girl always dresses for the day. We have successfully figured out how to integrate rain boots, a sundress, and a heavy coat into one cohesive, efficient, and adorable outfit. How do we do it? You’ll have to live in our zip code to find out.

2. We fest best.

Jazz Fest in the spring to Voodoo in the fall, we have a festival for every month and every personality. From preparing costumes months in advance for Voodoo to lathering on the sunscreen for French Quarter Festival, New Orleans girls--with a strawberry lemonade in one hand and crawfish Monica in the other--are the greatest festival goers of all time.

3. Mardi Gras is our favorite holiday, and we’re well-versed in all things purple, green, and gold.

“Throw me something, mister,” is a phrase that just rolls off the tongue when you are from New Orleans. Mardi Gras is an official state holiday, and we treat it as such; however, New Orleans girls polish their rain boots and find their Perlis shirts long before Fat Tuesday because parades begin many weeks before the main event. Ask any Nola girl, and we can tell you our favorite krewe, our professional tips, and our best Mardi Gras stories. We are counting down the days until Mardi Gras 2017, and we cannot wait to once again text our friends: “sidewalk or neutral ground side?”

4. We’ve got mad moves.

Put a group of girls on the dance floor, and you’ll spot who’s from New Orleans right away. We grew up perfecting our moves to “Iko Iko” on the parade route or perhaps trying to get on the dance cam in the Superdome as “Stand Up and Get Crunk” blared proudly.

5. We’ve also got mad palates.

We can spot frozen seafood with one quick bite, and please do not even try serving us fish from anywhere outside of a few miles radius. With fresh seafood all around us and a five-star restaurant at almost every turn, you could say that we are total food snobs. We can’t help it though; our tastebuds have been refined since our first cup of gumbo at Mandina’s or Sunday brunch at Palace Cafe.

6. We are very proud of our high schools.

One simple question can separate a New Orleans girl from anyone else: “where’d you go to school?” If you answer Mount Carmel, Ursuline, McGehee or any of the hundreds of schools we have within the parish lines, we know you’re a local. However, if you answer Tulane, LSU, or any other university, we will ask what part of the country you came from because we know you’re not from the 504. College is very important, but New Orleans girls are extremely proud of where we spent our high school days.

7. Our family means everything to us.

New Orleans girls have enormous hearts, and we love nothing more than our family. We grew up sitting at Sunday mass in a whole pew of cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. Our history is steeped in family ties and traditions, and we know that nothing is greater than the bond between a New Orleans girl and her family. Who else would we evacuate for countless storms with or call up when we wanted some late night Bud’s Broiler?

8. We are very proud to call New Orleans our home.

New Orleans, you are stuck with us. We have endured natural disasters and disastrous football seasons, and we love you just the same. You taught us how to be ourselves in a world where too many people conform. You taught us how to live abundantly in a time when a lot of people are just busy getting by. Most of all, you taught us how to persevere and find hope when the waters get high and the storms try to wash our spirit away. Thank you for being the greatest place to grow up and the only place that we would raise our children. New Orleans, we are yours forever, and we will second line through hell or high water to find our way home to the city beneath the sea.