JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<select>
  <option>skip me</option>
  <option>text1</option>
  <option>text2</option>
  <option>text3</option>
<select>

CSS

input[type=file] {
    color: transparent; 
    display: block; 
}

JavaScript

var options = document.querySelectorAll('select option:not(:first-child)');

var texts = [];

for (var i = 0; i < options.length; i++) {
    texts.push(options[i].innerText);
}

alert(texts.length);