JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<textarea name="foo"></textarea>
<a href="#">click</a><br />
<div id="result"></div>
JavaScript
$('a').click(function(){
var value = $('textarea').val().replace(/</g, '<').replace(/>/g,'>').replace(/\n/g, '<br/>');
$('#result').html(value);
});
/*
<p>blah blah blah</p>
<p>more text</p>
*/