diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 565204d..8dd42a6 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -211,7 +211,7 @@ function fastifySecureSession (fastify, options, next) {
     return session
   })
 
-  fastify.decorate('createSecureSession', (data) => new Proxy(new Session(data), sessionProxyHandler))
+  fastify.decorate('createSecureSession', (data = {}) => new Proxy(new Session(data), sessionProxyHandler))
 
   fastify.decorate('encodeSecureSession', (session, sessionName = defaultSessionName) => {
     if (!sessionNames.has(sessionName)) {
diff --git a/test/decorators.test.js b/test/decorators.test.js
index 7ce34cc..39accf0 100644
--- a/test/decorators.test.js
+++ b/test/decorators.test.js
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ test('it exposes encode and decode decorators for other libraries to use', async
   t.assert.strictEqual(session.get('foo'), 'bar')
   t.assert.strictEqual(typeof session.get('somethingElse'), 'undefined')
 
+  const emptySession = fastify.createSecureSession()
+  t.assert.deepStrictEqual(emptySession.data(), {})
+
   t.assert.ok(fastify.encodeSecureSession(fastify.createSecureSession({ foo: 'bar' })))
   t.assert.ok(fastify.encodeSecureSession(fastify.createSecureSession({})))
   t.assert.notEqual(fastify.encodeSecureSession(fastify.createSecureSession({ foo: 'bar' })), fastify.encodeSecureSession(fastify.createSecureSession({})))