“I feel like a lot of us do this when we’re single or when we are romantics and are longing for love. It’s like we tend to daydream about who this person is, and they really could be someone that we could meet tomorrow,” she explained. “As of right now, they’re just a stranger on the street. But it’s such a crazy thought that years from now, they’re not going to be a stranger at all. They could be the person that is getting down on one knee to you.”

While she initially came up with the ballad thanks to her love for the ABC dating series, Justice confessed that she wanted to share a more vulnerable facet of herself that she hadn’t in the past.

“I’ve never really shared this side of myself with people and my feelings on love and where I’m with that in my life,” she admitted. “It was super vulnerable, but also I felt like it was something, even though it’s emotional, I still feel like it’s hopeful and I feel like it’s something that a lot of people can relate to. And so I felt like it was important for me to put it out there.”

The Bachelorette wasn’t the only thing that inspired Justice while writing “Only a Stranger.” The singer alsopaid homage to music icon Billy Joel, whom she and her mother listened to throughout Justice’s childhood. For the song’s artwork, she recreated Joel’s The Stranger album cover. Joel, 74, shared his approval by reposting the cover on his social media.

“The fact that Billy Joel posted about it was the coolest thing ever,” she gushed to Us. “I can’t really believe [he knows] I exist. And the fact that he acknowledged my song, what an honor, it made my life.”

As Justice releases new music, she also spends her time advocating for the environment and reducing her carbon footprint. She recently partnered up with Arm and Hammer as they released their new eco-friendly Power Sheets detergent — which have been a “game changer” for the former Nickelodeon star as she travels frequently.

“It’s a liquidless detergent, so it’s amazing because you don’t have to lug around a heavy bottle. There’s no more drippy mess and there’s no more plastic bottle waste,” she explained. “It comes in a compact recyclable box, and they’re incredible.”

With reporting by Leanne Aciz Stanton