diff --git a/src/Stringy/Stringy.php b/src/Stringy/Stringy.php
index 256d07a..1574539 100644
--- a/src/Stringy/Stringy.php
+++ b/src/Stringy/Stringy.php
@@ -8,6 +8,20 @@ class Stringy
 
     public $encoding;
 
+    /**
+     * Inializes a Stringy object and assigns both str and encoding properties
+     * the supplied values. If $encoding is not specified, it defaults to
+     * mb_internal_encoding().
+     *
+     * @param   string   $str       String to modify
+     * @param   string   $encoding  The character encoding
+     */
+    public function __construct($str, $encoding = null)
+    {
+        $this->str = $str;
+        $this->encoding = $encoding ?: mb_internal_encoding();
+    }
+
     /**
      * Creates a Stringy object and assigns both str and encoding properties
      * the supplied values. If $encoding is not specified, it defaults to
@@ -19,13 +33,7 @@ class Stringy
      */
     public static function create($str, $encoding = null)
     {
-        $encoding = $encoding ?: mb_internal_encoding();
-
-        $stringyObj = new self();
-        $stringyObj->str = $str;
-        $stringyObj->encoding = $encoding;
-
-        return $stringyObj;
+        return new self($str, $encoding);
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/Stringy/StringyTest.php b/tests/Stringy/StringyTest.php
index 0b2ce8e..a90662c 100644
--- a/tests/Stringy/StringyTest.php
+++ b/tests/Stringy/StringyTest.php
@@ -7,6 +7,14 @@ use Stringy\Stringy as S;
 
 class StringyTestCase extends CommonTest
 {
+    public function testConstruct()
+    {
+        $stringy = new S('foo bar', 'UTF-8');
+        $this->assertInstanceOf('Stringy\Stringy', $stringy);
+        $this->assertEquals('foo bar', $stringy->str);
+        $this->assertEquals('UTF-8', $stringy->encoding);
+    }
+
     public function testCreate()
     {
         $stringy = S::create('foo bar', 'UTF-8');