Adriana Lima

Adriana Francesca Lima (Brazilian Portuguese: [ɐ̃dɾiˈɐnɐ frɐ̃ˈsɛskɐ ˈlimɐ]) (born June 12, 1981) is a Brazilian model and actress who is best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2000, and as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics from 2003 to 2009. At the age of 15, Lima finished first in 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. Since 2005, Lima has ranked in the top five of Forbes' lists of the 20 highest-earning models in the world, and in 2006 ranked No.99 on the Forbes Celebrity 100. In 2012, she was also listed on Forbes Celebrity 100 list for earning 7 million. She is married to Serbian basketball player Marko Jarić, with whom she has two daughters.

Career

 Modeling

Adriana Lima in 2010

Lima never thought about being a model, although she had won many beauty pageants in elementary school. However, she had 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 the age of 15, she entered and finished in first place in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" model search. She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford "Supermodel of the World" contest and finished in second place. Three years later, Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management. After acquiring representation, Lima's modeling portfolio quickly began to expand, and she appeared in numerous international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. As a runway model, she has walked the catwalks for designers such as Vera Wang, Giorgio Armani and Valentino, among others. 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.
Lima continued to build upon her portfolio, doing more print work for Maybelline, for whom she worked as a spokesmodel from 2003 until 2009, the same year she appeared in the company's first calendar. She did an ad campaign for Swatch  Lima has also worked for notable fashion brands bebe, Armani, Versace, BCBG and Louis Vuitton. She also appeared on the covers and in the editorials of other fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, GQ, Arena, Vogue, V, Esquire and French Revue des Modes. Her April 2006 GQ cover was the highest-selling issue that magazine for the year. It is also one of the biggest selling issues of the publication ever. The magazine named her "The World's Most Voluptuous Virgin". !n 2008, she again fronted the cover of GQ, this time, attracting a record number of visits to the publication's website. She also appeared in the 2005 Pirelli Calendar and became the face of Italy's cell phone carrier, Telecom Italia Mobile, a move that earned her the nickname, "the Catherine Zeta-Jones of Italy."
In February 2008, Lima was featured on the cover of Esquire, re-creating the classic 1966 Angie Dickinson cover on Esquire's 75th anniversary. She appeared only in shoes, diamonds and gloves for the November 2007 issue of Vanity Fair celebrating 20 years of supermodels with her fellow Angels. In February 2008, she was chosen to be the face of Mexico's Liverpool department store chain and launched the partnership with a press conference, runway show, and summer campaign. Lima returned to the high fashion runway in 2009, walking for Givenchy. That same year, after visiting Turkey, Lima signed a contract with Doritos to appear in print campaigns and commercials which began airing in Turkey that April. She was also one of the faces of Givenchy for the Fall/Winter 2009 season. Lima is one of the two faces of Blumarine's Fall/Winter 2011 season.
In 2011, Lima signed a deal as a spokeswoman for Megacity by Votsu, a Brazilian social gaming company, to appear in their commercials. She also became the face of Brazilian luxury brand, Forum for their F/W and S/S seasons. Lima has worked with the most established photographers in fashion such as Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matidin, Vincent Peters, Mario Sorrenti, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott David Sims and Mario Testino. She became the face of Donna Karan's spring 2012 advertising campaign, which was accused of having racist undertones due to a photo featuring Lima posing in front of huddled local Haitians.
In 2006, Lima ranked as the fifth highest paid supermodel. In 2007 and 2008, she ranked as the world's fourth highest paid supermodel by Forbes Magazine.
In early 2012, Turkish clothing company Mavi Jeans, has made a contract with Adriana to be the face and spokesmodel for the brand. In the first quarter of 2012, her advertisement campaign increased sales to 50%, the highest increase in products sales. It also provided 20% increase in stores and online traffic. Furthermore, her televesion commercial which was watched by 28 million people became a trending topic at Twitter and the number of people now on Mavi's facebook page have increased by 20%. Store officials at Mavi say the clothing Adriana wore in the ad campaigns were met with so much demand that, they ran out of stocks. Due to her success rate with the company, the European and Russian branch of Mavi decided to make her the global face of the brand.

 Victoria's Secret

Adriana Lima with the 2010 Fantasy Bra.

Lima is probably best known for her work with Victoria's Secret. Her first fashion show for the company came in 1999, and since being contracted as an Angel in 2000, she has appeared on subsequent shows ever since, opening the show in 2003, 2007, 2008, and 2010. In 2004, she was part of the five Angels promoting Victoria's Secret nationwide in the so-called "Angels Across America"-Tour alongside Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bündchen and Alessandra Ambrosio.She missed the 2009 show due to her pregnancy. Lima has appeared on several television ads for the brand, including the praised and criticized "Angel in Venice" commercial of 2003 with Bob Dylan. 2008 continued for Lima with hosting the What Is Sexy? program for the E! Entertainment Network and a July tour for the BioFit Uplift Bra launch. She was also featured in November's Miracle Bra relaunch. Topping the year off, Lima wore the "Fantasy Bra" for the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. The bra, created by American jewelry designer Martin Katz, was set with 3,575 black diamonds, 117 certified 1 carat (200 mg) white round diamonds, 34 rubies, and two black diamond drops totaling 100 carats (20 g). Valued at over $5 million, the bra carried more than 1,500 carats (300 g). In 2010, she again wore the Fantasy Bra, called the Victoria's Secret Bombshell Fantasy Bra. The bra which weighs in at 142 carats with 60 carats of white diamonds and 82 carats of topazes and sapphires is worth 2 million dollars.

 Super Bowl ads

Lima's 2008 solo Victoria's Secret's Super Bowl XLII ad was the single most-seen ad of the game, watched by 103.7 million viewers. In February 2012, Lima became the only celebrity to ever star in two Super Bowl commercials in one game. She starred in Super Bowl XLVI commercials for online flower service Teleflora and Kia Motors in early 2012 which was watched by more than 200 million viewers. Her Kia Motors Super Bowl commercial - promoting the new Kia Optima - sent sales to their highest mark since the design debuted. Sales were up 31% from January 2012 and 138.6% from February 2012.The commercial was also voted No.3 out of the 55 commercials on USA TODAY and Facebook's Super Bowl Ad Meter. A teaser of the commercial was released in movie theaters in January before the game. It is believed to be the first time a Super Bowl commercial premiered in movie theaters.
Forbes named her Teleflora commercial as one of the best during Super Bowl XLVI, with the comment, "Teleflora...Adriana Lima. ‘Nuff said".Among the many reviews the commercial had, The Huffington Post noted: “One of the basic goals of any commercial is to capture the viewer’s attention, and by this measure, Teleflora.com’s ad featuring supermodel Adriana Lima was most definitely successful.” ESPN.com noted: “This actually makes sense when you think about it: Launch your Valentine’s Day campaign in the middle of the Super Bowl. That’s actually what flower company Teleflora is doing on Sunday. Even smarter? Hire supermodel Adriana Lima to star in it.

Personal life

Victoria's Secret Angels Adriana Lima (left), Marisa Miller and Selita Ebanks ride in the Guantanamo Bay Christmas Parade Dec. 1, 2007

Lima was born in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She is a devout Roman Catholic who attends mass every Sunday. In April 2006, she told GQ that she was a virgin. "Sex is for after marriage," she explained. "They [men] have to respect that this is my choice. If there's no respect, that means they don't want me."
After nine months of dating, Lima became engaged to Serbian NBA player Marko Jarić in June 2008. The couple married on St. Valentine's Day 2009 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.In May 2009, it was reported that Lima had applied for Serbian citizenship. The couple have two daughters: Valentina Lima Jarić (Serbian Cyrillic: Валентина Лима Јарић, born November 15, 2009) and Sienna (born September 12, 2012