She starred as Stella Abbott in Life Sentence (2018), the titular character in Katy Keene (2020) and DC Lake Edmunds in Ragdoll (2021).

[14] In 2003, Hale first appeared on television as a contestant in the Fox reality show American Juniors.

On July 30, 2003, Hale finished in fourth place[15] and part of a group of the same name formed with the top 5 finishers (Chauncey Matthews, Danielle White and Tori & Taylor Thompson) but the group disbanded in 2005, after their self-titled studio album's lackluster sales.

[13] Hale then appeared in The CW series Privileged as Rose Baker, with co-stars Ashley Newbrough and JoAnna Garcia.

[22] In October 2009, Hale was cast as Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars, based on the book series of the same name by Sara Shepard.

In January 2010, Hale appeared as the singer Phoebe Nichols and her identical body double Vanessa Patton in the CSI: Miami episode "Show Stopper".

[26] Throughout her career, Hale made appearances of music videos with artists: Foy Vance's "She Burns", Chase Jordan's "Lose Control (Take a Sip)" and Jackson Harris' "Come Back Down to Earth".

Hale hosted an episode of MTV's Punk'd aired on April 26, 2012, where she successfully pranked with Pretty Litte Liars co-star Ian Harding, Vanessa Hudgens and Josh Hutcherson.

[33] On February 18, 2014, Hale's debut studio album was announced to be called Road Between, released on June 3, 2014.

Hale recorded two stand-alone Christmas songs "Mistletoe" and a cover of Francesca Battistelli's "You're Here", both released in 2014 and 2017, respectively.

In 2018, Hale was cast in The CW comedy-drama series Life Sentence[36] as Stella Abbott, a woman who finds out that her terminal cancer is cured.

On March 11, 2019, Hale was cast as the lead role in Katy Keene, based on the Archie Comics character of the same name.

In an episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast, Hale said: "I just held on to that belief that the real Lucy came out when she was drinking.