I always forget the MySQL create database with UTF8 character set syntax, so here it is:

CREATE DATABASE `mydb` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
GRANT ALL ON `mydb`.* TO `username`@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Alternatively, you can use ‘CREATE SCHEMA’ instead of ‘CREATE DATABASE’:

CREATE SCHEMA `mydb` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
GRANT ALL ON `mydb`.* TO `username`@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

I hope this helps someone else too!