In Sweden approximately a half per cent of the population have diabetes mellitus type 1. Self-care responsibility is a part of the treatment. Orem’s self-care theory has been used as theoretical framework. The purpose was to describe what it means to be young and have diabetes mellitus type 1. The used method was a litterateur review based on 12 scientific articles. The results showed that conditioning factors in Orem’s self-care theory affects how good the self-care agency are for young people with diabetes mellitus type 1. The relationship to themselves, support and hindrance in friendship relation, parent relation and care relation appeared to have significance. It emerged how imported it was to know and have knowledge about how their self-care agency could be supported because it is essential for how their disorder would proceed in the future.