Integrate jQuery plugin into React

Question

This is how it goes: I'm trying to integrate FontAwesome IconPicker (a jQuery plugin) into a React project I'm working on.

This is what I've got so far:

import '../../../node_modules/fontawesome-iconpicker/dist/js/fontawesome-iconpicker';
import $ from 'jquery';

class IconControl extends Component {

    componentDidMount() {
        this.$el = $( this.el );
        this.$el.iconpicker();

        this.handleChange = this.handleChange.bind( this );
        this.$el.on( 'change', this.handleChange );
    }

    componentDidUpdate( prevProps ) {
        if ( prevProps.icon !== this.props.icon ) {
            this.$el.trigger( 'iconpicker:updated' );
        }
    }

    componentWillUnmount() {
        this.$el.off( 'change', this.handleChange );
        this.$el.iconpicker( 'destroy' );
    }

    handleChange(e) {
        this.props.onChange( e.target.value );
    }

    render() {

        const {
            attributes: {
                icon,
                description,
            },
        } = this.props;

        return (
            <input
                type="text"
                value={ icon }
                ref={ el => this.el = el }
            />
        );
    }

}

export default IconControl;

I've read React's documentation regarding integrating with other libraries , but I still can't get a clear picture on how to achieve this. I've managed to make the icon select menu show up and select an icon from it, but I have no idea how to work with this particular plug-in and React to store that data.

Any guidance will be more than appreciated :)