[jQuery] Getting null when trying to retrieve textarea value

[[EMAIL PROTECTED]]

I am trying to get the value of a textarea with the following code,
however it is returning null all the time.

var curText= $("[EMAIL PROTECTED]").val();
alert(curText);

<textarea name="myText" rows="5" cols="20" id="myText" style="width:
250px;"></textarea>

Is there something else I need to do?