In May 2004, following her first year in university,[2] Patton took part in CBS' Soap Star Screen Test, a nationwide audition contest for university students to win a role on the soap opera The Young and the Restless.[3] Patton won the contest alongside Ethan Rains.[4] In 2008, Patton had a starring role in The WB's web series Sorority Forever and a role in the independent film Commander and Chief.[5][6]
In 2017, along with her Arrowverse co-stars Patton co-founded Shethority ("She + Authority"), an online global collective described as "a positive place for women and the feminine to inspire, empower, and share."[8] Active members of the initiative include Melissa Benoist, Nicole Maines, Chyler Leigh, Caity Lotz, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Tala Ashe, Emily Bett Rickards, Juliana Harkavy, Katie Cassidy and Danielle Panabaker. Through social media, women share their own stories and experiences on dealing with self-acceptance, homophobia, sexual harassment at the workplace and so on. Shethority has its own clothing line, from which all the money collected will be donated to non-profit organizations fighting for girls and women rights, such as Girls Not Brides[9] and Girls, Inc..[10]
In May and June 2019, Patton, DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee, writer Tom King, and fellow CW series actresses Nafessa Williams and Danielle Panabaker toured five U.S. military bases in Kuwait with the United Service Organizations (USO), where they visited the approximately 12,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in that country as part of DC's 80th anniversary of Batman celebration.[11]