jquery mobile placeholder in text box does not appear unless use backspace to clear text box

Question

Hi I'm developing a jquery mobile form and one of the inputs is a text field. I do not want the label visible for space constraints and design reasons, but have the guidance text in the text box via placeholder.

issue is that the placeholder text does not appear until I use the backspace when it appears.

here is the jquery mobile form code that is passed by mustache into the DOM content div

<div data-role="fieldcontain">
    <label for="text" class="ui-hidden-accessible">Why Its Cool:</label>
    <textarea id="editTextField" name="text" placeholder="Why Its Cool" cols="40"  rows="8" >{{text}}
    </textarea>
</div>