Adriana Lima

Brazilian model Adriana Lima was born on June 12, 1981 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Adriana has a mix Native-Brazilian, African—Brazilian, French, Portuguese and Caribbean heritage.

 Lima had never thought of being a model. She had won many beauty pageants during her elementary days. She first sent pictures in a modeling contest because her friend did not want to enter the contest alone. Soon she was asked to come out for the competition.  She entered the Ford’s Supermodel of Brazil and won the title. After a year, she entered Ford’s Supermodel of the World contest and finished second place.

Adriana moved to New York City after achieving second place on the Ford’s Supermodel of the World. She signed with Elite Model Management and this made her modeling career rise. She achieved a modeling campaign for Anna Molinari’s clothing line. Soon her portfolio as a model rapidly expanded, she ramped for international lines such as Vogue, Marie Claire, Vera Wang, Giorgio Armani and Valentino.
In 2000, she became a GUESS? Model and walked for the brand’s fall campaign. On that same year, she appeared in the book, A Second Decade of Guess? Images.

 Adriana have worked on several notable brands such as bebe, Armani, Versace Louis Vitton and BCBG. In addition to her work, she became the cover and editorials of magazines including ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, V, Esquire, Revue des Modes, GQ and Arena. She became the face of Italy’s Cellphone carrier, Telecom Italia Mobile and was given the nickname of “the Catherine Zeta-Jones of Italy”.

 In 2008, the young model became the cover of Esquire magazine. She recreated the classic 1966 Angie Dickinson cover for the magazine’s 75th anniversary, she posed together with fellow Angels such as Alessandra Ambrosio, Karolina Kurkova, Izabel Goulart and Selita Banks. On that same year, she became the Mexico Liverpool department store chain.

 Lima was best known for being a Victoria’s Secret Angel. She had been an Angel since 1999 and modeled  for the brand until now. She became the opening act of the show in 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2010. As for the models’  personal life, she is married to Serbian basketball player Marko Jaric. The couple has a daughter named Valentina that was born on November 15, 2009