React.js implement menu [highlight active link]

At this day you can use NavLink from react-router-dom. This object supports attributes as activeClassName, activeStyle, or isActive (for functions).

import { NavLink } from 'react-router-dom';

<NavLink to='about' activeClassName="active">about</NavLink>

// Or specifing active style
<NavLink to='about' activeStyle={{color: "red"}}>about</NavLink>

// If you use deep routes and you need an exact match
<NavLink exact to='about/subpath' activeClassName="active">about</NavLink>

For more options read documentation: https://reacttraining.com/react-router/web/api/NavLink

maybe slightly less verbose... in Pseudocode

const menuItems = [
   'projects',
   'about',
];

class MenuExample extends React.Component {

  _handleClick(menuItem) { 
    this.setState({ active: menuItem });
  }

  render () { 
    const activeStyle = { color: '#ff3333' };

    return (
       <div className='menu'>  
         {menuItems.map(menuItem => 
            <Link 
             style={this.state.active === menuItem ? activeStyle : {}} 
             onClick={this._handleClick.bind(this, menuItem)}
            > 
              {menuItem}
            </Link>
         )}
       </div>
    );    
  }
}