I always make a male and female character and give them the same name from my other games if possible (I gave them personality/backstories in my head, dont ask). And sometimes I make multiple characters from different classes, species, races, skin colors etc. and if I feel creative, their back story/bio. Helps if one is a creative person that likes to write stories.
The “RPGs to Trans” pipeline.
I, too, drank deeply from it.
Final Fantasy VI had some great women characters for its time and looking back I liked Celes quite a bit. Now I know why I guess. Lucca in Chrono Trigger was also pretty awesome.