diff --git a/InteractiveAutomationToolkit/Components/RawValueMapping.cs b/InteractiveAutomationToolkit/Components/RawValueMapping.cs
index 649d7ed..77666f8 100644
--- a/InteractiveAutomationToolkit/Components/RawValueMapping.cs
+++ b/InteractiveAutomationToolkit/Components/RawValueMapping.cs
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ internal class RawValueMapping<T>
 
 		public bool TryGetByRawValue(string rawValue, out T value)
 		{
-			if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(rawValue))
+			if (rawValue == null)
 			{
 				value = default;
 				return false;
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ private static string CleanDisplayValue(string displayValue)
 		{
 			if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(displayValue))
 			{
-				return "empty";
+				return "\u200B";
 			}
 
 			var sb = new StringBuilder();
diff --git a/InteractiveAutomationToolkitTests/ComponentTests.cs b/InteractiveAutomationToolkitTests/ComponentTests.cs
index 0b5df15..742ae9c 100644
--- a/InteractiveAutomationToolkitTests/ComponentTests.cs
+++ b/InteractiveAutomationToolkitTests/ComponentTests.cs
@@ -58,6 +58,22 @@ public void DropDown_HandlePipeChar()
 			Assert.AreEqual("--3", dropDown.BlockDefinition.InitialValue);
 		}
 
+		[TestMethod]
+		public void DropDown_HandleEmptyOption()
+		{
+			DropDown dropDown = new DropDown(new[] { String.Empty, "|" });
+			Assert.AreEqual(String.Empty, dropDown.Selected);
+			Assert.AreEqual("\u200B", dropDown.BlockDefinition.InitialValue);
+
+			dropDown.Selected = "|";
+			Assert.AreEqual("|", dropDown.Selected);
+			Assert.AreEqual("-", dropDown.BlockDefinition.InitialValue);
+
+			dropDown.Selected = String.Empty;
+			Assert.AreEqual(String.Empty, dropDown.Selected);
+			Assert.AreEqual("\u200B", dropDown.BlockDefinition.InitialValue);
+		}
+
 		[TestMethod]
 		public void GenericDropDown_HandlePipeChar()
 		{