diff --git a/packages/tldraw/src/lib/utils/text.test.ts b/packages/tldraw/src/lib/utils/text.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..39a1f8d04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/tldraw/src/lib/utils/text.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+import { cleanupText } from './text'
+
+describe(cleanupText, () => {
+	it('can handle the empty string', () => {
+		expect(cleanupText('')).toBe('')
+	})
+	it('can handle space-only strings', () => {
+		expect(cleanupText(' ')).toBe('')
+		expect(cleanupText('   ')).toBe('')
+	})
+})
diff --git a/packages/tldraw/src/lib/utils/text.ts b/packages/tldraw/src/lib/utils/text.ts
index 7f39baa6f..91d0033eb 100644
--- a/packages/tldraw/src/lib/utils/text.ts
+++ b/packages/tldraw/src/lib/utils/text.ts
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ function stripCommonMinimumIndentation(text: string): string {
 	const lines = text.split('\n')
 
 	// remove any leading lines that are only whitespace or newlines
-	while (lines[0].trim().length === 0) {
+	while (lines[0] && lines[0].trim().length === 0) {
 		lines.shift()
 	}