I use "they/them" all the time when talking about people as well. It never really occured to me that doing so was lazy or implied a different gender identity, since it's just neutral.
My mayor has the "Pretty sharp." face, and my other character has the "How'd you know?" face.
Mayor sort of needs the ( ͡? ͜ʖ ͡?) face to deal with some of the villagers.