diff --git a/Database/MySQL.sql b/Database/MySQL.sql
index 43d2983..48d5dc3 100644
--- a/Database/MySQL.sql
+++ b/Database/MySQL.sql
@@ -1,25 +1,25 @@
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users` (
   `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
-  `email` varchar(254) NOT NULL,
+  `email` varchar(249) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
   `password` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_general_cs NOT NULL,
-  `username` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
+  `username` varchar(100) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
   `verified` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
   `registered` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
   `last_login` int(10) unsigned DEFAULT NULL,
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
   UNIQUE KEY `email` (`email`)
-) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
+) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users_confirmations` (
   `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
-  `email` varchar(254) NOT NULL,
+  `email` varchar(249) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
   `selector` varchar(16) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_general_cs NOT NULL,
   `token` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_general_cs NOT NULL,
   `expires` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
   UNIQUE KEY `selector` (`selector`),
   KEY `email_expires` (`email`,`expires`)
-) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
+) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users_remembered` (
   `id` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users_remembered` (
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
   UNIQUE KEY `selector` (`selector`),
   KEY `user` (`user`)
-) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
+) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users_resets` (
   `id` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
@@ -41,14 +41,14 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users_resets` (
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
   UNIQUE KEY `selector` (`selector`),
   KEY `user` (`user`)
-) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
+) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `users_throttling` (
   `id` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
-  `action_type` enum('login','register','confirm_email') NOT NULL,
+  `action_type` enum('login','register','confirm_email') COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
   `selector` varchar(44) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_general_cs DEFAULT NULL,
   `time_bucket` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
   `attempts` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
   UNIQUE KEY `action_type_selector_time_bucket` (`action_type`,`selector`,`time_bucket`)
-) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
+) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cf12374..7ee5c77 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ Completely framework-agnostic and database-agnostic.
 ### Create a new instance
 
 ```php
-// $db = new PDO('mysql:dbname=database;host=localhost;charset=utf8', 'username', 'password');
+// $db = new PDO('mysql:dbname=database;host=localhost;charset=utf8mb4', 'username', 'password');
 // $db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
 
 $auth = new \Delight\Auth\Auth($db);
diff --git a/tests/index.php b/tests/index.php
index 1f5638c..d17ac71 100644
--- a/tests/index.php
+++ b/tests/index.php
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ header('Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
 error_reporting(E_ALL);
 ini_set('display_errors', 'stdout');
 
-$db = new PDO('mysql:dbname=php_auth;host=127.0.0.1;charset=utf8', 'root', '');
+$db = new PDO('mysql:dbname=php_auth;host=127.0.0.1;charset=utf8mb4', 'root', '');
 $db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
 
 require __DIR__.'/../src/Auth.php';