Adriana Lima

Adriana Lima (born 12 June 1981) is a Brazilian model.

Lima was born on 12 June 1981 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford Models Supermodel of the World contest and finished in second place.

A year later, Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management.

Lima made her runway debut at Anna Sui's New York Fashion Week show in September 1997.

As a runway model, she has walked the catwalk for designers such as Rosa Cha, Blue man, Fashion's Night Out, Caio Gobbi, Fause Haten, M. Officer, Luca Luca, Liverpool Fashion, Dosso Dossi, Carmen Steffens, Cía Maritima, Agua de Coco, Lino Villaventura, Forum, Vassarette, Zoomp, Joan Vass, Cori, Emilio Pucci, Fendi, Giles Deacon, Carmen Marc Valvo, Emanuel Ungaro, Baby Phat, Giorgio Armani, Balmain, Bottega Veneta, Sportmax, Vera Wang, Valentino, Miu Miu, Givenchy, Versace, Cividini, Alexandre Herchcovitch, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs, Christian Dior, Paco Rabanne, Victoria's Secret, Sean John, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Desigual, Cynthia Rowley, Sully Bonnelly, Anna Sui, Guy Laroche, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Yigal Azrouël, Ralph Lauren, Christian Lacroix, Escada, Nanette Lepore, Richard Tyler, Triton, and Betsey Johnson.

Her first magazine cover was Marie Claire Brazil in September 1998.

She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1999 to 2018.

Her first Vogue covers were the Italian Vogue Gioiello in September 2000, on their 20th Anniversary issue, and Vogue Brasil the next month.

Lima became a GUESS? girl in 2000, appearing in that year's fall ad campaign.

She also appeared in the book ''A Second Decade of Guess?

Images''.

She is also known as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics since 2003, and for her Super Bowl and Kia Motors commercials.

At age 15, Lima won Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" competition, and took second place the following year in the Ford "Supermodel of the World" competition before signing with Elite Model Management in New York City.

Lima is currently ranked by models.com as one of the "New Supers".

Lima continued to build upon her portfolio, doing more print work for Maybelline, for whom she has worked as a spokesmodel since 2003 to 2009.

Also in the same year, she appeared in the company's first calendar and did an ad campaign for Swatch.

Lima has also worked for notable fashion brands bebe, Armani, Versace, De Beers, Elie Saab, Colcci, Schiaparelli, Prada, Intimissimi, GUESS?, LOEWE, H&M, Bulgari, Miu Miu, DKNY, Emporio Armani, Givenchy, Keds, Mossimo, Jason Wu, Balmain, Blumarine, Marc Jacobs, Maybelline, BCBG, and Louis Vuitton.

She also appeared on the covers and in the editorials of other fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, Interview, GQ, W, Arena, V, Esquire, Garage, and French Revue des Modes.

Her April 2006 GQ cover was the highest-selling issue of that magazine for the year.

Many sources stated that "Francesca" is her middle name, but Lima herself denied this in an interview to W Radio Colombia in 2010, and confirmed that her name is only Adriana Lima.

Her parents are Nelson Torres, a carpenter, and Maria das Graças Lima, a social worker.

Her father left the family when she was six months old, and Lima was raised only by her mother.

Lima was raised in the Castelo Branco neighbourhood of Salvador.

She has stated that prior to starting modelling, she had wanted to pursue a career as a paediatrician.

Lima is of Portuguese, Native Brazilian, African, Japanese, Swiss, and West Indian descent.

She personally identifies as Afro-Brazilian.

Lima speaks four languages: her native Portuguese, English, Italian, and Spanish.

Lima never thought about being a model, although she had won many beauty pageants in elementary school.

However, a friend at school who wanted to enter a modeling contest and did not want to enter alone, so Lima entered with her.

Both sent in pictures, and the contest sponsor soon asked Lima to come out for the competition.

Soon after, at age 15, she entered and finished in first place in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" model search.

In 2012, she came in 4th place on the Forbes top-earning models list, estimated to have earned $7.3 million in one year.

In 2013, she came in 3rd place and in 2014 she came in 2nd place with earnings of $8 million.

Since 2014, Lima has been the world's second highest-paid model.

In 2015, she came in 2nd place with earnings of $9 million.

In 2016, she kept the second place with earnings of US$10.5 million.

Lima has served as brand ambassador for the clothing brand Desigual based in Barcelona, Spain, for the Beachwear collection of Italian brand Calzedonia, and for the ready-to-wear collection of Italian brand Sportmax.

She is currently an ambassador for IWC, Puma, Maybelline, and Chopard.

She was the longest-running model and named "the most valuable Victoria's Secret Angel" in 2017.