Adriana Lima was born in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, as she shared in a 2010 video with Victoria's Secret. Notably, Lima was always very close to her grandmother, Julia, whom she's frequently referred to as her "soulmate." In an Instagram post on her grandmother's 98th birthday in 2017, Lima gushed, "My love, my life, my heart, my soulmate. The most inspirational woman in my world, the one that [taught] me to be honest, positive, always forgive and smile always."

While Adriana Lima was presumably always beautiful, she wasn't always so into modeling. She told E! News during her first Victoria's Secret shoot at 18 that she used to be "really scared of ... cameras." Speaking with Victoria's Secret, she shared, "I was a very shy kid," noting, "I always wanted to do everything that the boys [were] doing. Playing football, climbing on trees, playing with cars."