Why is .current null for useRef Hook?

I have a simple example of a component: function App() { const observed = useRef(null); console.log(observed.current); return ( <div ref={observed} className="App"> <h1>Hello CodeSandbox</h1> <h2>Start editing to see some magic happen!</h2> </div> ); } const rootElement = document.getElementById("root"); ReactDOM.render(<App />, rootElement); I would expect that observed.current would be of type e