diff --git a/src/main/java/org/kiwiproject/io/KiwiIO.java b/src/main/java/org/kiwiproject/io/KiwiIO.java
index 6b7fef2a..b7dfe5a1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/kiwiproject/io/KiwiIO.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/kiwiproject/io/KiwiIO.java
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 import static java.util.Objects.nonNull;
 import static java.util.stream.Collectors.joining;
 import static java.util.stream.Collectors.toList;
+import static org.kiwiproject.base.KiwiPreconditions.checkArgumentNotNull;
 
 import lombok.experimental.UtilityClass;
 import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
@@ -200,6 +201,40 @@ public static ByteArrayInputStream newByteArrayInputStreamOfLines(String... line
         return new ByteArrayInputStream(buffer);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Creates a new {@link ByteArrayInputStream} containing the bytes of the given string using the
+     * UTF-8 character set.
+     * <p>
+     * Note: The UTF-8 character set is widely used and supports a vast range of characters, making it
+     * suitable for most applications. However, if the string was encoded using a different character
+     * set, use the other version of this method that accepts a {@link Charset} to specify the character
+     * set that was used to encode the string.
+     *
+     * @param value the string from which to create the ByteArrayInputStream
+     * @return a new ByteArrayInputStream initialized with bytes from the provided string
+     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the input string is null
+     */
+    public static ByteArrayInputStream newByteArrayInputStream(String value) {
+        return newByteArrayInputStream(value, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Creates a new {@link ByteArrayInputStream} containing the bytes of the given string using the
+     * specified character set.
+     *
+     * @param value   the string from which to create the ByteArrayInputStream
+     * @param charset the character set used to encode the string as bytes
+     * @return a new ByteArrayInputStream initialized with bytes from the provided string
+     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the input string or charset is null
+     */
+    public static ByteArrayInputStream newByteArrayInputStream(String value, Charset charset) {
+        checkArgumentNotNull(value, "value must not be null");
+        checkArgumentNotNull(charset, "charset must not be null");
+
+        byte[] bytes = value.getBytes(charset);
+        return new ByteArrayInputStream(bytes);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Return a newly constructed, empty {@link ByteArrayInputStream}.
      *
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/kiwiproject/io/KiwiIOTest.java b/src/test/java/org/kiwiproject/io/KiwiIOTest.java
index dc35150a..b27e5b25 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/kiwiproject/io/KiwiIOTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/kiwiproject/io/KiwiIOTest.java
@@ -3,16 +3,20 @@
 import static java.util.stream.Collectors.joining;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatCode;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatIllegalArgumentException;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
 import static org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers.any;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.doThrow;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
 
+import org.joda.time.Instant;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayName;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Nested;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;
 
 import javax.xml.stream.XMLInputFactory;
 import javax.xml.stream.XMLOutputFactory;
@@ -312,6 +316,70 @@ private void assertNoMoreLines(BufferedReader reader) throws IOException {
         }
     }
 
+    @Nested
+    class NewByteArrayInputStream {
+
+        @Test
+        void shouldRequireNonNullInputString() {
+            assertThatIllegalArgumentException()
+                    .isThrownBy(() -> KiwiIO.newByteArrayInputStream(null))
+                    .withMessage("value must not be null");
+        }
+
+        @Test
+        void shouldAllowEmptyStrings() {
+            var inputStream = KiwiIO.newByteArrayInputStream("");
+
+            assertThat(inputStream).isEmpty();
+        }
+
+        @Test
+        void shouldEncodeStringsUsingUTF8() {
+            var value = "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy brown dog at " + Instant.now();
+            var inputStream = KiwiIO.newByteArrayInputStream(value);
+
+            var expected = new ByteArrayInputStream(value.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+
+            assertThat(inputStream).hasSameContentAs(expected);
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Nested
+    class NewByteArrayInputStreamWtihCharset {
+
+        @Test
+        void shouldRequireNonNullInputString() {
+            assertThatIllegalArgumentException()
+                    .isThrownBy(() -> KiwiIO.newByteArrayInputStream(null, StandardCharsets.UTF_8))
+                    .withMessage("value must not be null");
+        }
+
+        @Test
+        void shouldRequireNonNullCharset() {
+            assertThatIllegalArgumentException()
+                    .isThrownBy(() -> KiwiIO.newByteArrayInputStream("some string", null))
+                    .withMessage("charset must not be null");
+        }
+
+        @ParameterizedTest
+        @ValueSource(strings = {
+            "ISO-8859-1",
+            "US-ASCII",
+            "UTF-8",
+            "UTF-16",
+            "UTF-32",
+        })
+        void shouldEncodeStringsUsingDifferentCharsets(String charsetName) {
+            var charset = Charset.forName(charsetName);
+            var value = "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy brown dog at " + Instant.now();
+            var inputStream = KiwiIO.newByteArrayInputStream(value, charset);
+
+            var expected = new ByteArrayInputStream(value.getBytes(charset));
+
+            assertThat(inputStream).hasSameContentAs(expected);
+        }
+    }
+
     @Nested
     class TestingProcessArgumentMethods {