JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<div class="animation">
    <span>
        ABCDEFHG
    </span>
</div>

CSS

* {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

div {
  background-color: #fff;
  width: 0;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.animation {
  -webkit-transition: width .5s ease-in-out;
  -moz-transition: width .5s ease-in-out;
  -o-transition: width .5s ease-in-out;
  transition: width .5s ease-in-out;
}

JavaScript

setTimeout(function () {
    console.log($('div').find('span'));
	  console.log($('div').find('span').width())
    $('div').css('width', $('div').find('span').width() + 'px');
}, 1000);