Hi, The mdbAutocomplete component by default is meant to allow the user to enter only values from the provided list - so the inability to enter 'blahblah' in the country field is intentional. If on the other hand, you want to handle other values as well, use @input.native instead of v-model .

<mdb-autocomplete
  icon="heart"
   :data="states"
    label="What is your favorite US state?"
   @input.native="updateValue"
/>

updateValue(e) {
      this.autocompleteValue = e.target.value;
    },

Best regards, Magdalena