Teresa Lima was born in Lisbon in 1962. She has a degree in Painting from the Lisbon School of Fine Arts. In 1994, she began to devote herself to illustrating children's books. She teaches Visual Arts at the Vergílio Ferreira School in Lisbon. She lives and works in Lisbon.
Among other distinctions, she received the National Illustration Award in 1998 for her book Alice no País das Maravilhas (Alice in Wonderland) by Lewis Carroll and in 2006 for her work Histórias de Animais (Animal Stories) by Rudyard Kipling. The book Se os Bichos se Vestissem como Gente (If Animals Dressed Like People), by Luísa Ducla Soares, was awarded an Honourable Mention in the same prize in 2004. The book Ovos Cozidos (Boiled Eggs), by Marisa Nuñez, was selected for the White Ravens catalogue by the International Youth Library in Munich in 2008. She was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2014 in the illustration category by the Portuguese section of IBBY for her entire body of work.

She illustrated, among others, the books A Cor das Vogais (The Colour of Vowels), by Vergílio Alberto Vieira (Civilização, 1995); Segredos (Secrets), by António Mota (Desabrochar, 1996); Alice no País das Maravilhas (Alice in Wonderland), by Lewis Carroll (Civilização, 1998); O Gigante e as três irmãs (The Giant and the Three Sisters) by Alice Vieira (Caminho, 1998); A Cavalo no Tempo (Horseback in Time) by Luísa Ducla Soares (Civilização, 2003); Se os Bichos se Vestissem como Gente, by Luísa Ducla Soares (Civilização, 2004); António e o Principezinho, by José Jorge Letria (Ambar, 2004); The Tin Soldier, by Hans Christian Andersen (Dom Quixote, 2005); Animal Stories, by Rudyard Kipling (Ambar, 2006); Boiled Eggs, retold by Marisa Nuñez (OQO, 2007); The Seven Little Goats, by Tareixa Alonso (OQO, 2008); Félix, the Collector of Fears, by Fina Casalderrey (OQO, 2009); Angéle et le Cerisier, by Raphael Frier (L’Atelier du Poisson Soluble, 2011); A Árvore, by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (Porto Editora, 2013); O Casamento da Gata, by Luísa Ducla Soares (Porto Editora, 2016), A Mãe e Outras Modos de Viajar, by Raul Malaquias Marques (apcc-Associação para a Promoção Cultural da Criança, 2019). El Hombre que Contaba Estrellas, by Arturo Abad (OQO, 2019); As Palavras Também Brincam, by Luísa Ducla Soares/Daniel Completo, (Canto das Cores Edições, 2020).