diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d25e93f9..61eee608 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -367,7 +367,7 @@ ignores common forms of "front matter". To match differently, specify a custom
 The default value:
 
 ```js
-/((^---$[^]*?^---$)|(^\+\+\+$[^]*?^(\+\+\+|\.\.\.)$))(\r\n|\r|\n|$)/m
+/((^---\s*$[^]*?^---\s*$)|(^\+\+\+\s*$[^]*?^(\+\+\+|\.\.\.)\s*$))(\r\n|\r|\n|$)/m
 ```
 
 Ignores [YAML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML) and
diff --git a/helpers/helpers.js b/helpers/helpers.js
index 0bd8d8e2..a8f1ae60 100644
--- a/helpers/helpers.js
+++ b/helpers/helpers.js
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ module.exports.newLineRe = /\r[\n\u0085]?|[\n\u2424\u2028\u0085]/;
 
 // Regular expression for matching common front matter (YAML and TOML)
 module.exports.frontMatterRe =
-  /((^---$[^]*?^---$)|(^\+\+\+$[^]*?^(\+\+\+|\.\.\.)$))(\r\n|\r|\n|$)/m;
+  // eslint-disable-next-line max-len
+  /((^---\s*$[^]*?^---\s*$)|(^\+\+\+\s*$[^]*?^(\+\+\+|\.\.\.)\s*$))(\r\n|\r|\n|$)/m;
 
 // Regular expression for matching inline disable/enable comments
 const inlineCommentRe =
diff --git a/test/front-matter-title-pandoc-spaces.json b/test/front-matter-title-pandoc-spaces.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..054e8566
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/front-matter-title-pandoc-spaces.json
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+{
+  "default": true,
+  "MD041": true
+}
diff --git a/test/front-matter-title-pandoc-spaces.md b/test/front-matter-title-pandoc-spaces.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..29dc4345
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/front-matter-title-pandoc-spaces.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
++++ 
+title: "Welcome to pandoc!"
+date:  2015-11-17 16:16:01 -0600
+...   
+
+Some plain text here.
diff --git a/test/front-matter-title-spaces.json b/test/front-matter-title-spaces.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3c524e19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/front-matter-title-spaces.json
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+{
+  "default": true,
+  "MD013": false,
+  "MD041": true
+}
diff --git a/test/front-matter-title-spaces.md b/test/front-matter-title-spaces.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..85516f0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/front-matter-title-spaces.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+--- 
+layout: post
+title:  "Welcome to Jekyll!"
+date:   2015-11-17 16:16:01 -0600
+categories: jekyll update
+---   
+
+Front matter from [Jekyll documentation](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/posts/#a-typical-post).
diff --git a/test/front-matter-title-toml-spaces.json b/test/front-matter-title-toml-spaces.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..054e8566
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/front-matter-title-toml-spaces.json
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+{
+  "default": true,
+  "MD041": true
+}
diff --git a/test/front-matter-title-toml-spaces.md b/test/front-matter-title-toml-spaces.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..46dd03b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/front-matter-title-toml-spaces.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
++++ 
+date = "2017-01-26T22:17:00+02:00"
+title = "My document title and heading"
++++   
+
+Some plain text here.