Interesting with the higher pitch for female characters! I've never done that, and never even thought of it. I mean, I'm female, so I don't need to go higher up to do a female voice. And it's physically impossible for me to go as deep as a male voice, so I just try to distinguish different voices by means of other things. I've heard a female reader try to go down deep for a male voice, but I thought it sounded a bit strained.