diff --git a/strings/strip.py b/strings/strip.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d4f901f0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/strings/strip.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+def strip(user_string: str, characters: str = " \t\n\r") -> str:
+    """
+    Remove leading and trailing characters (whitespace by default) from a string.
+
+    Args:
+        user_string (str): The input string to be stripped.
+        characters (str, optional): Optional characters to be removed
+                (default is whitespace).
+
+    Returns:
+        str: The stripped string.
+
+    Examples:
+        >>> strip("   hello   ")
+        'hello'
+        >>> strip("...world...", ".")
+        'world'
+        >>> strip("123hello123", "123")
+        'hello'
+        >>> strip("")
+        ''
+    """
+
+    start = 0
+    end = len(user_string)
+
+    while start < end and user_string[start] in characters:
+        start += 1
+
+    while end > start and user_string[end - 1] in characters:
+        end -= 1
+
+    return user_string[start:end]